The "Lidio Ramón Pérez" Thermal Power Plant, commonly referred to as Felton, has been temporarily disconnected from Cuba's National Electric System (SEN) as of Tuesday to undergo "partial maintenance," according to an announcement on the plant's official Facebook page. "The ETE 'Lidio Ramón Pérez' Felton is beginning to reduce its load for partial maintenance. The main tasks will focus on the boiler," the post specified, without mentioning how long the power plant, situated in Mayarí, Holguín province, will be offline.
The Cuban Electric Union (UNE) clarified in its scheduled outages report for October 29 that the "unavoidable" maintenance of Felton is expected to last 10 days. "This morning, we will take unit 1 of the CTE Felton offline to carry out the planned and necessary maintenance for 10 days," they noted.
In addition to Felton, the UNE reported that two other units are also down for maintenance: unit 2 of the CTE Santa Cruz and unit 5 of the CTE Renté. Due to malfunctions, unit 3 of the CTE Santa Cruz, unit 3 of the CTE Cienfuegos, and unit 2 of the CTE Felton are also out of service. Altogether, six thermoelectric units are currently disconnected from the SEN: three due to breakdowns and three for maintenance.
The forecast for power outages on Tuesday has surged to 1,318 MW, significantly higher than the previous day's estimate of 1,060 MW. Consistent with past occurrences, the actual number exceeded estimates, with Cubans experiencing 1,200 MW of outages on Monday.
The energy crisis continues to plague Cubans, demonstrating the ongoing challenges within the island's power infrastructure.