Cuban largest and most efficient power plant out of service due to boiler failure

MATANZAS, Cuba, Oct 3 (ACN) The Antonio Guiteras Thermoelectric Power Plant (CTE by its Spanish acronym), the largest and most efficient unitary block in Cuba, exited today from the national electric system (SEN) due to a breakdown in the boiler area, after synchronizing and reaching 180 megawatts (MW) of power.

The unit, recognized as the spearhead of thermal generation in the Caribbean nation, recently succeeded in solving the problem related to the excitement system, damaged by the collapse of the SEN the previous Tuesday.

Misbel Palmero Aguilar, general director of the plant, told the Cuban News Agency that professionals from Mexico, the province of Holguin(eastern Cuba) and from CTE Guiteras itself combined efforts to restore the functionality of a series of automatic elements that affect the correct electrical operation.

He said that they are currently complying with the boiler cooling time, which can reach 36 hours, and later they will be ready to carry out the definitive diagnosis of the failure, while they prepare conditions to develop around 60 parallel tasks, according to the estimated four-day interruption time.

The CTE Antonio Guiteras, which has been in operation for more than three decades, managed to synchronize in the early hours of Monday morning and raise the load to 180 megawatts for approximately five hours, at which time the interruption occurred due to the boiler failure.