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Cuba Dispatch
4AUG

Guiteras stops a 20th time, 64.6% dark

3 min read
10:34UTC

Cuba's largest generating unit stopped for the 20th time this year on 26 July. UNE forecast 1,150 MW available against 3,250 MW of demand, leaving 64.6 per cent of the island dark at the evening peak.

← Back to Cuba's blackout: UNE blames a 110kV faultJump to analysis ↓
PoliticsDeveloping
Key takeaway

Guiteras stopped a 20th time as seven other thermal units stood offline, darkening 64.6 per cent of Cuba.

Antonio Guiteras, Cuba's largest single generating unit, stopped for the 20th time in 2026 on Sunday 26 July. Unión Eléctrica (UNE), which runs Cuba's national grid, forecast in its bulletin the following morning that 1,150 MW (megawatts) would be available against 3,250 MW of peak demand, a shortfall of 2,100 MW that would leave 64.6 per cent of the island simultaneously dark at the evening peak. The outturn came in at 64.04 per cent. 1 The date is Día de la Rebeldía Nacional, the state holiday marking the 1953 assault on the Moncada barracks.

Seven thermal units stood offline alongside Guiteras, three broken down and four in scheduled maintenance: CTE Mariel unit 6, Felton unit 2 and CTE Rente unit 3 had failed, while CTE Santa Cruz unit 3, Nuevitas unit 5 and Rente units 5 and 6 were being worked on. UNE had forecast a 2,240 MW deficit for 16 July . Eleven days on the gap had barely closed, and the roster of components able to bring the system down had lengthened.

Cuba's 54 solar parks reached a record 758 MW at midday on 18 and 19 July , the first solar-capacity figure UNE has published. Solar produces nothing at 20:30, when household demand peaks and when the thermal fleet has to carry the whole island alone. Guiteras compounds that twice over. When UNE rebuilt the grid after the collapse of 1 to 3 August, it held Guiteras back until restart conditions were safe, along with Felton unit 1 and CTE Diez de Octubre unit 6. A stoppage therefore costs both the megawatts the unit would have generated and the spinning reserve it would have carried, meaning generation already synchronised and turning, able to absorb a sudden loss before the frequency falls away.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Antonio Guiteras is Cuba's biggest power station, and on 26 July it broke down for the 20th time this year. Cuba's electricity operator, UNE, said only 1,150 megawatts of power was available against a need of 3,250 megawatts, so nearly two-thirds of the island, 64.6 per cent, lost power at the busiest time of day. The date fell on 26 July, the anniversary of the 1953 attack Cuba's government treats as the start of its revolution, a day usually marked with official celebration.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

Guiteras is a single 330 MW unit built in the late 1980s to run on Cuban and Venezuelan heavy crude; when PDVSA shipments fall short, as they have through 2026, the plant either idles or burns lower-grade substitute fuel that increases wear, producing the repeated stoppages.

Cuba's generation fleet lacks the reserve margin that would let one plant's failure pass unnoticed: UNE's own 27 July bulletin listed seven further units broken down or in maintenance alongside Guiteras, so a single stoppage removes capacity the system has no spare units to replace.

What could happen next?
  • Consequence

    With seven further units out alongside Guiteras, any additional single-line trip has almost no reserve margin to absorb, raising the odds of a full national collapse of the kind recorded on 2 August.

  • Risk

    Repeated substitute-fuel operation degrades Guiteras's boiler components further with each cycle, a pattern that could extend the unit's average annual downtime.

Sources:Diario de Cuba
Mentions:Antonio Guiteras →UNE →Mariel →University of Texas at Austin →Cuba →Granma →Felton unit 1 →Washington →Texas →CTE Felton →CTE Nuevitas →
First Reported In

Update #13 · Cuba's blackout: UNE blames a 110kV fault

Diario de Cuba· 4 Aug 2026
Read original →
Causes and effects
Caused by
UNE forecasts a 2,240 MW shortfall
The 2,240 MW deficit forecast on 16 July continued to widen through Guiteras' 26 July stoppage.
Occurred 15 Jul 2026
Read story →
This Event
Guiteras stops a 20th time, 64.6% dark
Seven further thermal units stood offline alongside Guiteras, so the shortfall no longer turns on any single plant returning to service.
Led to
UNE blames a 110kV fault, not a storm
Guiteras' 20th stoppage on 26 July widened the reserve shortfall behind the 1-3 August collapse sequence.
Occurred 2 Aug 2026
Read story →
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