The Ernesto Guevara de la Serna Thermoelectric Power Plant (CTE), located in Santa Cruz del Norte, Mayabeque, was completely disconnected from the National Electric System (SEN) this Friday after it was reported, at 08:55, the shutdown of its unit 2 due to an oil leak in the turbine bearing, according to the report from Unión Eléctrica (UNE) on their social media.
With this new breakdown, all three units of the plant —which has a combined installed capacity of 295 MW— are out of operation: unit 1 has been down since the fire on October 16, unit 2 has just failed due to the mechanical failure reported this morning, and unit 3 is under maintenance.
The outage at the power plant exacerbates an electrical crisis that was already nearing collapse. According to the UNE daily report for this Friday, at 6:00 AM the SEN had barely 900 MW available against a demand of 2,142 MW, with 1,245 MW already affected at that moment.
The night outlook is even more grim: the UNE forecasted a capacity of 900 MW during peak demand against a demand of 2,800 MW, resulting in a deficit of 1,900 MW and an estimated impact of 1,930 MW — the available generation would barely cover 32% of what the country requires.
The previous day, the electricity service was interrupted for a full 24 hours, including the early morning, with a maximum impact of 1,920 MW recorded at 7:00 PM.
The CTE Ernesto Guevara is not the only plant experiencing simultaneous failures. The report from this Friday also indicates that the unit at the CTE Antonio Guiteras —the largest in Cuba, located in Matanzas, has been out of the SEN since Wednesday due to a leak in the economizer—, unit 2 of the CTE Felton, and unit 6 of the CTE Renté are also out of service.
The CTE Felton in Holguín, with a total capacity of around 510 MW, is also completely out of operation: its unit 1 started a scheduled maintenance of 21 days on Monday to clean the boiler, while its unit 2 remains broken.
Additional limitations in thermal generation amount to 283 MW more, according to the same official report.
The CTE Ernesto Guevara has a record of accelerated deterioration during 2026. Built with Soviet technology and completed in 1991, the plant has documented 349 incidents, with recurring failures in its three units throughout the year. On March 21, all three failed simultaneously; unit 1 experienced interruptions in February, April, and May; and on July 9, unit 2 was taken offline due to a leak in the economizer before the failure this Friday.
The fire on October 16, caused by an oil leak at the front of the rotor of unit 1, marked the beginning of the most recent decline of the power plant. That fire was extinguished without casualties, but the unit has been out of service for almost a month.
The photovoltaic solar parks generated 2,220 MWh on Thursday, with a maximum capacity of 345 MW, but this source does not operate at night, which is precisely when the greatest deficits and the longest blackouts occur for Cubans.
The maximum impact in November has progressively increased: 1,764 MW on the ninth, 1,816 MW on the tenth, 1,883 MW on the eleventh, and 1,920 MW on the twelfth. With the CTE Ernesto Guevara completely out of the SEN, the UNE predicts that the impact this Friday during the night hours could reach 1,930 MW, surpassing all recent records for the month.
Related videos:
Filed under: