On Friday at noon and Saturday morning, complete shutdowns of Cuba's national power grid resulted in a significant malfunction of Unit 3 at the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes thermoelectric plant in Cienfuegos. José Osvaldo González Rodríguez, the general manager of the Cienfuegos Thermoelectric Company, explained to PerlavisionTV that the "system instability" was to blame for the turbine failure, which led to the unit being taken offline.
González Rodríguez elaborated, "When the system collapses, our unit, which is synchronized, abruptly loses its operational parameters and ends up working against the national electrical system. This is often referred to as the system overwhelming the unit." After the disconnection, it was discovered that the unit had experienced a "loss of speed." He mentioned that "we won't be able to shut down the turbine for repairs until Monday afternoon."
In the meantime, workers at the Cienfuegos plant are undertaking "preparatory actions so that, when the time comes, we can immediately start uncovering bearings and accessing the areas that need inspection" to assess the subsequent steps required once the cooling process, which takes about 100 hours, is complete.
The director's unclear explanation highlights one certainty: starting Monday, they will begin accessing the affected area to identify the damage. However, the timeline for the plant to become operational again remains unknown.
On Monday, October 14, the Cienfuegos thermoelectric plant was "scheduled" to disconnect from the national electricity system at 10 PM, according to Cuba’s Electric Union (UNE) on social media. This disconnection exacerbated the already complex situation in electricity generation, leading to increased frequency and duration of blackouts.
Despite assurances from the state-run company led by Alfredo López Valdés that this was a "planned maintenance," the announcement of the so-called "scheduled disconnection" came 15 hours after it occurred. The UNE stated the aim was to "carry out the necessary planned maintenance on block 4."
With Unit 4 under maintenance and Unit 3 malfunctioning after the widespread grid failure, the Cienfuegos plant is in a precarious state, complicating efforts to restore the system. The latest reports from authorities indicated that "in the central part, there is a microsystem ensuring some coverage, with the goal of reaching Energás Varadero to initiate startup and deliver power to the Guiteras plant."
The "central subsystem" is still awaiting the start-up of Unit 5 in Nuevitas, but there is no mention of the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes plant. At the time of writing, it seems that the country's thermoelectric plants remain offline or in the process of starting up, yet they are not supplying energy to the national grid.