The country’s main thermoelectric plant has suffered at least 17 shutdowns in 2026, while its workers struggle to keep an exhausted facility running.
14ymedio, Havana, July 3, 2026 – No Cuban is surprised anymore to learn that the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant has gone offline from the National Electric System (SEN). “And when did it come online? I didn’t even notice,” one Cuban asked this Friday after hearing about the latest breakdown. The Matanzas unit disconnected at 6:58 a.m., just four days after being synchronized with the grid and while generating about 180 megawatts.
As of the time this article was written, authorities had not explained the cause of the new breakdown or provided a timetable for returning the plant to service. With this latest incident, the Guiteras has suffered at least 17 outages so far this year. The previous one, announced on June 24, was caused by a water leak in the aging boiler.
The brief statement posted on the plant’s Facebook page was met with a mix of fatigue, outrage, and sarcasm. “The truth is, it never really came online. Let’s be honest,” wrote user Frank Manolo Gallardo. “The never-ending story,” added Yeudis Fernández. For Luansy Lima, the explanation was simpler: “Of course, it takes weekends off.”
“Let me guess… another boiler leak. The Guiteras is like a sieve,” joked Marta Beatriz Parra. “You can’t even tell anymore whether it’s coming online or going offline,” added Soyuz Maray Gómez. Others summed up the uselessness of the official reports for those still enduring endless blackouts: “Either way, we don’t notice whether it comes online or goes offline because there’s never any electricity.”
The plant has not undergone a major overhaul since 2010 and has been in operation for more than 38 years
The mockery, however, is not directed at the plant’s workers, who are repeatedly forced back into the depths of a deteriorating facility. In May, more than 300 people worked shifts of up to 14 hours during a 90-hour repair operation. Welders had to work inside the boiler in temperatures reaching 60 degrees Celsius (140°F) and at heights of around 150 meters (492 feet).
“Inside the boiler, the heat is hellish,” admitted Norberto Padrón Ramos, a supervisor and welder with 38 years of experience. He also warned about the gases, the exhaustion, and the cumulative toll of such work: “It’s a job that eventually takes its toll on you.”
The State press itself described the technicians welding “at full speed, racing against the clock,” eating and drinking coffee beside the boiler so they would not interrupt the work. But behind that image of labor heroism lies enormous pressure. Every Guiteras breakdown worsens the blackouts, the pot-banging protests, and the demonstrations. The regime knows this, which is why it mobilizes ministers and Communist Party officials and makes the workers directly responsible for bringing back online within days a machine that actually requires months of work.
For decades, the Cuban state postponed major overhauls, allowed its thermoelectric plants to age, and replaced systematic investment with emergency patchwork repairs
The plant has not undergone a major overhaul since 2010 and has been operating for more than 38 years. Between January and May alone, it spent 293 hours out of service due to defects in the economizer, one of the boiler components that has suffered the most frequent failures.
Guiteras shutdowns also pose a risk to the stability of the entire electrical grid. This does not mean that every breakdown will necessarily trigger a nationwide blackout, but the sudden loss of one of the country’s largest generating units can cause a frequency drop that Cuba’s weakened electrical system does not always have sufficient reserves to offset. On September 10, 2025, an unexpected shutdown at the plant caused the complete collapse of the National Electric System. In March of this year, another disconnection left two-thirds of the country without electricity.
For decades, the Cuban state postponed major overhauls, allowed its thermoelectric plants to deteriorate, and replaced long-term investment with emergency fixes. Beyond the regime’s perennial excuse of the embargo and sanctions, the problem was never a lack of resources but rather a political decision about where to spend them.
“Please, don’t turn it on anymore—build a new one,” one commenter pleaded. The remark, written out of frustration, sums up both a technical and political conclusion: the Guiteras does not need another miracle from its workers, but a comprehensive overhaul and the kind of investment that the Government chose for years to devote instead to hotels that now stand empty.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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