Puerto Rico was once again plunged into darkness on Tuesday due to the latest failure in its troubled power grid.
According to LUMA Energy, the private company that manages Puerto Rico’s power grid, power was cut across the region since the morning hours. The company apologized to Puerto Ricans for the “disruption to their plans to say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new year.”
As of 6 p.m., power had been restored to about 336,000 of Puerto Rico’s 1.5 million customers. However, the company stated that the full restoration process could take one to two days, potentially leaving customers without power during the New Year holiday.
LUMA spokesman Hugo Sorrentini said, “We understand the frustration of our customers. No one wants to spend New Year’s Eve without service. We will not rest until we serve them all.”
The cause of the power outage is under investigation. Sorrentini noted that initial findings indicate a fault in a switchyard cable outside the Costa Sur generation facility may have caused units to go offline, triggering cascading outages that led to a system-wide shutdown.
Puerto Rico suffers frequent power outages due to the instability of its electricity grid, largely attributed to neglect and lack of investment by the state-owned utility. Its location in the Caribbean also makes it vulnerable to powerful hurricanes, which frequently damage its fragile electricity system.
In September 2017, Hurricane Maria destroyed the region’s power grid, causing outages in parts of the archipelago that lasted almost a year. The storm killed nearly 3,000 Puerto Ricans and was the second deadliest hurricane in U.S. history.
Puerto Rico also experienced widespread blackouts earlier this year when Tropical Storm Ernesto caused a major power outage.
“No American should be forced to enter the New Year in the dark,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in a statement on X. “I share the frustration of the many Puerto Ricans who are facing another widespread power outage on the island. They deserve better.”
Puerto Rico Governor-elect Jenniffer González-Colón, currently the territory’s non-voting resident commissioner in Congress, stated that stabilizing Puerto Rico’s energy grid will be her top priority when she takes office.
“We cannot continue to rely on an energy system that has failed our people,” González-Colón said on X. “Today’s power outage and the uncertainty over repairs continue to affect our economy and quality of life.”
Current Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi said that work is underway to restore service at the territory’s two major power plants. His administration will “demand answers and solutions from both LUMA and Genera, accelerate the restart of generating units outside the fault area, and duly inform the public about the measures they are taking to restore service island wide.”
Ivan Baez, a spokesman for Genera, the private company that manages Puerto Rico’s older power plants, confirmed LUMA’s initial assessment of the cause of the outage.
“The good news is that, thank God, the plants are in good condition, and LUMA is working to reconnect customers according to safety protocols,” Baez said.
Javier Rúa-Jovet, chief policy officer of the Solar + Energy Storage Association, noted that about 150,000 customers in Puerto Rico with solar and storage systems have electricity.
