A power outage in Puerto Rico left about 1.3 million customers in the dark on Tuesday as the U.S. territory began preparing for New Year's Eve, but officials said it could take up to two days to restore power. .
The power outage occurred at dawn, leaving the entire island in silence as appliances and air conditioners were turned off before those who could afford to turn on generators, the Associated Press reported.
Luma Energy, the private company that oversees electricity transmission and distribution, said nearly 90% of Puerto Rico's 1.47 million customers are left in the dark.
The company also said the outage was caused by a faulty underground power line and said it was restoring power “in the quickest and safest manner possible.”
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A utility pole with a loose cable towers above a home in Loiza, Puerto Rico, on September 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Alejandro Granadillo, File)
The outage only fueled already smoldering anger at Genera PR, the company that oversees Luma and Puerto Rico's power generation.
Governor-elect Jennifer González Colón, who takes office on January 2, has called for the creation of an “energy czar” to review potential Luma contract violations until another operator is found.
“We cannot continue to rely on an energy system that is failing our people,” she wrote in X magazine, adding that stabilizing Puerto Rico's energy grid will be a top priority for her administration.
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Current Governor Pedro Pierluigi is also involved in the matter, saying in a post on X that he is in contact with Luma and Genera Public Relations.
“I can report that work is already underway to restore service to our San Juan and Palo Seco plants,” he wrote. “We are demanding answers and solutions from both LUMA and Genera. They are urgently working to get power generation units outside the fault area back up and running, as well as educating the public about the steps they are taking to restore service across the island. We have to inform them properly.”
The power outage forced several businesses, parks and shopping malls to close, and the government announced restrictions on the schedules of some government offices.
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Business owners rely on generators to keep operations running during an island-wide power outage in San Juan, Puerto Rico, April 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Carlos Giusti, File)
Power outages are rare in Puerto Rico, but the island suffers from chronic power outages due to the collapse of the power grid, which was severely damaged by Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm, in September 2017.
However, at that time, the system was already in decline due to years of neglect in terms of maintenance and investment.
Crews only recently began making permanent repairs to Puerto Rico's power grid after Hurricane Maria. The island remains dependent on generators provided by the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to stabilize the power grid.
Last month, Puerto Rico's government asked U.S. authorities for permission to keep more than a dozen portable generators in use for another two years.
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Meanwhile, Puerto Rico's Electric Power Authority is struggling to restructure more than $9 billion in debt, the largest of any government agency on the island.
Oil-dependent power plants generate more than 60% of Puerto Rico's energy, followed by natural gas and coal. On an island with a poverty rate of over 40%, rooftop solar power accounts for only about 7% of electricity consumption.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
