Cuba's Antonio Guiteras Power Plant Offline for Five Days for Weld Repairs

The Antonio Guiteras thermal power plant in Matanzas, Cuba’s largest electricity‑generating unit, will be out of service for at least five days beginning on June 17. Workers are repairing more than 100 weld seams after a failure of one weld ruptured a tube and damaged three adjacent tubes, affecting a total of four conduits. The damaged tubes were replaced, but the incident prompted a deeper inspection that uncovered dozens of additional vulnerable welds.

Technicians will remove and re‑weld all identified weak points, aided by an expanded team of welders sent by the national electricity union. The plant, inaugurated in 1988, has suffered frequent breakdowns this year, with this being its 14th outage, reflecting long‑standing deterioration. Its prolonged shutdown is expected to worsen Cuba’s already significant generation deficit and increase blackouts across the provinces.