San Juan, Porerto Rico (AP) – The crews worked early Thursday to restore power Puerto Rico After a power failure that struck the whole island Assigned the main international airport, hospitals and hotels filled with Easter vacationers.
The breakdown that started afternoon on Wednesday left 1.4 million customers without electricity and more than 400,000 without water. More than 742,600 customers, or 51%, had power before Thursday morning, while 83% of customers had restored water. The managers expected 90% of customers to have electricity in the 48 to 72 hours after the breakdown.
“It is a shame for the inhabitants of Puerto Rico that we have a problem of this magnitude,” said Governor Jenniffer GonzálezWho cut her week’s vacation and returned to Puerto Rico on Wednesday evening.
Drivers fill fuel containers in a service station during a power outage on the island scale in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Wednesday April 16, 2025. (AP / Granadillo Alejandro photo)
She said that it would take at least three days to have preliminary information about what could have caused the power failure, which has groaned traffic, forced hundreds of companies to close and let people unable to allow generators to rush to buy ice and candles.
“There is still a long recovery path,” she said. “Our system is very fragile.”
It is the second power panel at the scale of the island to strike Puerto Rico in less than four months, with the previous one Performing New Year’s Eve.
The under pressure to end contracts with energy companies
“Why the holidays?” Antriformé José Luis Richardson, who had no generator and kept cool in splashing water on himself every two hours.
The roar of generators and the smell of fumes have filled the air as an increasing number of renewed Puerto Ricans call on the government to cancel contracts with Luma Energy, which oversees the transmission and distribution of power, and the genres PR, which supervises generation.
González promised to listen to these calls.
Customers are seated in a restaurant lit by lanterns fueled by battery during a power failure at the island scale, in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, Wednesday April 16, 2025. (AP photo / Alejandro Granadillo)
“It is not under doubt or question,” she said, but added that it is not a quick process. “It is unacceptable that we have failures of this kind.”
González said that a major breakdown like the one that occurred on Wednesday causes an estimated loss of income at $ 230 million a day.
Ramón C. Barquín III, president of the United Retail Center, a non -profit organization that represents small and medium -sized enterprises, warned that current failures frightened potential investors at a time when Puerto Rico needs urgent economic development.
“We cannot continue to repeat this cycle of Panus breakdowns without taking concrete measures to strengthen our energy infrastructure,” he said.
An employee of the service station directs traffic while cars align fuel during a power failure on the scale of the island in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Wednesday April 16, 2025. (AP photo / Alejandro Granadillo)
Many were also concerned about the elderly population of Puerto Rico, the mayor of Canóvanas deploying brigades to visit the filter and those who depend on electronic medical equipment.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Vega Alta has opened a center to provide energy to those with vital medical equipment.
What caused the power failure?
It was not immediately clear which caused the closure, the last in a series of important breakdowns on the island in recent years.
One possibility is that the invaded vegetation affected the grid, which, if it should not have occurred, said that Josué Colón, the energy tsar of the island and former executive director of the electric authority of Puerto Rico.
He noted that authority stolen daily to check certain lines, which he said that Luma should do.
Colón said Luma also had to explain why all the generators closed after there was a failure of the transmission system, when only one was supposed to go into protective mode.
Vehicles sail in a black street in old San Juan, Puerto Rico, during a power failure on the island scale, Wednesday April 16, 2025. (AP / Granadillo Alejandro photo)
Pedro Meléndez, a Luma engineer, said that a survey was underway. He said Thursday at a press conference that he did not immediately have details on the last time the company had made an air patrol, but said they were performing with the frequency established in his contract.
Daniel Hernández, vice-president of operations at Genera PR, said on Wednesday that a disturbance had struck the transmission system shortly afternoon, at a time when the grid is vulnerable because there are few machines regulating the frequency at this time.
Puerto Rico has fought against chronic breakdowns since September 2017, when Hurricane Maria Hit the island as a powerful category 4 storm, shaving an electric network that crews still have trouble rebuilding.
The grid had already deteriorated following decades of lack of maintenance and investment.
____
Follow the AP cover of Latin America and the Caribbean to https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
