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Turkish floating power plant Erol Bey leaves Cuba amid the blackout crisis

The barge-mounted plant, able to generate 63 MW, sailed out of Havana harbor on Monday at 14:30 local time, as the EFE news agency confirmed. Cuba's government has not confirmed the departure.

The Turkish floating power plant Erol Bey left Cuba on Monday, November 2: it sailed out of Havana harbor at 14:30 local time, as the EFE news agency confirmed, cited by 14ymedio and Infobae. It could generate 63 megawatts (MW) and had been idle for several months for lack of fuel. Cuban authorities have not confirmed the departure.

In April, the Ministry of Energy and Mines said two plants of this kind were left in Havana, the Belgin Sultán and the Erol Bey, with 124 MW of installed capacity between them. The first was being used as a logistics support vessel and generated no electricity, which left the Erol Bey as the only one able to do so.

The Erol Bey was one of eight vessels Cuba contracted from the Turkish company Karadeniz Holding, owner of Karpowership, which began bringing them to the island in 2019. At their peak they added more than 400 MW to the national grid and in 2023 they generated 4,494 gigawatt-hours, 23% of the country's electricity, according to National Statistics and Information Office figures reported by 14ymedio. The cost of the contracts was never disclosed.

14ymedio attributes the withdrawal of these plants to the Cuban government's unpaid bills to the Turkish company, and recalls that the 240 MW Suheyla Sultan had already left in August 2025 in that same context.

Cuba's government describes the state of the national grid as "critical" and "extremely tense." Thermoelectric plants, responsible for about 40% of generation, were mostly built in the 1960s and 1970s. The country has suffered eight nationwide blackouts so far in 2026, and cuts routinely exceed 20 hours a day in Havana and reach three days in a row in other provinces.

Sources: 14ymedio · Cubanet · Infobae · Serie Yamacoa: Afectación eléctrica máxima prevista en el horario pico (Unión Eléctrica (UNE))

Data updated: 2026-11-03T04:15:00.000Z

Turkish floating power plant Erol Bey leaves Cuba amid the blackout crisis | Yamacoa Observatory