The Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Power Plant, Cuba's largest, experienced boiler malfunctions on Saturday. This was a direct result of mechanical stress caused by the complete disconnection of the National Electric System on Friday, marking the island's eighth nationwide blackout this year.
Román Pérez Castañeda, the general director of the plant located in Matanzas, announced that the cooling process of the boiler commenced immediately. He suspects that the damage involves "punctures in various points of the steam generator," as reported by journalist José Miguel Solís on Facebook.
Cooling the boiler will take nearly 72 hours, which means maintenance crews from the Central Electric Maintenance Company won't be able to begin inspection and repairs until Monday afternoon.
At the time of the breakdown, the Matanzas plant had been continuously operational for 44 days with an average output of 185 megawatts since it last rejoined the system on August 4th.
Optimism Turned to Disappointment
It's noteworthy that just two weeks prior, there was a wave of optimism from the government. On September 5th, Solís celebrated on Facebook that the Guiteras had gone 30 uninterrupted days online, remarking, "30 days in line, who would have thought, huh?" This was heralded as a significant achievement.
The longest operational streak of the year for the plant ended abruptly when the collapse of the national electrical system induced stresses that damaged its boiler, closing a chapter the regime had tried to portray as resolved.
Widespread Impact and Repeated Failures
The eighth nationwide blackout of the National Electric System was triggered on Friday by the successive tripping of two high-voltage lines—220 kV lines originating in Matanzas—specifically the Matanzas-Cienfuegos and Matanzas-Santa Clara lines. This was exacerbated by unstable weather conditions, leaving more than nine million people across Cuba without power.
This latest malfunction is not an isolated incident. Between January and July, the Guiteras experienced at least 17 unplanned outages from the electrical grid, with the economizer of the boiler suffering the most damage: over 293 hours out of service in the first five months of the year and more than 500 tubes reported damaged in June.
Structural Decline and Maintenance Challenges
In July, the plant managed to stay connected to the system for just 26 minutes before going offline again. Despite these recurrent issues, the regime chose to award diplomas to its workers in the midst of ongoing breakdowns.
The structural decline of the facility has an underlying cause that temporary fixes have failed to address: the Guiteras has not received comprehensive maintenance since 2010. Technicians themselves have acknowledged that a complete overhaul would require about 180 days—a necessary operation recognized by the regime but never executed.
As the boiler cools and Cuba waits for the slow restoration of electricity service following the year's eighth national collapse, the Guiteras remains out of commission at a critical time when it is most needed.
Impact of Electrical Outages in Cuba
What caused the latest breakdown at the Antonio Guiteras Power Plant?
The breakdown was caused by mechanical stress due to a total disconnection of the National Electric System, leading to boiler malfunctions.
How long will it take to inspect and repair the plant?
The cooling process of the boiler will take about 72 hours, delaying inspection and repairs until Monday afternoon.
Why hasn't the Antonio Guiteras plant received comprehensive maintenance?
The plant has not received comprehensive maintenance since 2010 due to a lack of execution by the regime, despite its acknowledgment that such an intervention is necessary.