San Juan, Puerto Rico (AP) – A power outage on the island scale struck Puerto Rico This week, leaving 1.4 million customers without electricity and more than 400,000 without water.
It was the second massive breakdown to strike Puerto Rico Since New Year’s EveWhen a power failure left 90% of customers without electricity.
CREWS Thursday scrambled to restore power As an increasing number of Puerto Ricans, the governor called on the governor to cancel the contracts of two companies that oversee the generation, transmission and distribution of power over the American territory of 3.2 million residents.
A room fills fuel containers in a service station in San Juan, Puerto Rico, during a power failure on the island’s scale, Wednesday April 16, 2025. (Photo AP / Alejandro Granadillo)
When has the power failure occurred?
Wednesday at 12:38 p.m., massive generation factories began to stop Puerto Rico after the failure of a transmission line. The refrigerators stopped humming, the air conditioners were silent and the traffic lights have become dark.
People began to make the scale of the breakdown when they started calling friends and a family who live on the other side of the island who said they were also without power.
Hundreds of companies have closed, including the largest Caribbean shopping center. Hospitals and the main international airport started running over generators while dozens of passengers using a rapid public transport system that serves the capital, San Juan, were forced to walk on a viaduct next to the train rails to evacuate.
Incredible, the Puerto Ricans began to demand government responses while the crews rushed to discover what happened. “When are we going to do something?” Reggaeton superstar bad bunny wrote on X, reflecting the collective rage of people.
Anger grew up while people were starting to publish photos of those affected by the power failure, including a woman who had connected a small machine in the exit of a grocery store to give herself a medical treatment for a pulmonary state.
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)
Why did he occur?
The authorities still study the causes of the power failure, which could include if several breakers have not opened or exploded. González said.
Another possibility is that the invaded vegetation may have affected the grid and has failed a transmission line, officials said.
Luma Energy, the company responsible for supervising the transmission and distribution of energy to Puerto Rico, is supposed to perform frequent aerial patrols on certain lines to ensure that they remain free from vegetation.
Pedro Meléndez, an engineer from Luma, said on Thursday at a press conference that the line where the failure had taken place had been inspected last week as part of regular aerial patrols to check more than 2,500 miles of transmission lines across the island.
“No imminent risk has been identified,” he said.
Joshué Colón, the island’s energy tsar and former executive director of Puerto Rico electric authority, said that Luma also had to explain why all the generators closed after there was a failure in the transmission system, when only one was supposed to go into protective mode.
It will probably take weeks to find a precise reason for the power failure, although Governor Jenniffer González said on Thursday that she expects to have a very preliminary report within three days.
Why is Puerto Rico’s electrical network in such poor condition?
For decades, the electric authority of Puerto Rico did not give the network the maintenance and investment it needed.
He started to collapse over the years, then on September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria Hit the American territory as a powerful category 4 storm. He broke the electric lines, overturned the transmission towers and broken fragile wooden light posts, leaving some people for almost a year without electricity.
In the months that followed, the teams focused on emergency repairs. It was only a few years after the hurricane that real reconstruction began.
In June 2021, the Electric Power Authority contracted Luma as it was fighting to restructure its Debt more than $ 9 billionWith negotiations still in progress.
In January 2023, the authority contracted genres of public relations to supervise the generation of power on the island as part of another public-private partnership.
Puerto Rico was prey to chronic power outages from Maria, with photos and videos of increasingly common fire transmission lines.
González said that the supply of coherent energy is a priority and has moved away from the objectives of renewable energies set by the previous governor.
Its administration recently extended the operations of Porto Rico plant with coal.
Meanwhile, with a poverty rate exceeding 40%, many on the island cannot afford solar panels or generators.
About 117,000 houses and businesses on the island have solar roofs. Electric power plants provide 62% of Porto Rico’s power, 24% natural gas, 8% coal and renewable energies 7%, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
What do civil servants do to improve the grid?
An increasing number of Puerto Ricans ask for that the governor cancels the Luma contract, and she is committed to doing so.
“People must have tired of having such a mediocre system. If it is not transmission, it is generation,” said González. “Of course, there will be consequences.”
However, she noted that the cancellation of the contract and the search for a new company take time.
Officials also warned that there would not be a sufficient generation in the summer, when demand culminates.
Given this concern, González said the government was trying to contract a business that can provide more than 800 megawatts of energy in the coming months. The proposal request process began on March 25 and ends this month. Sixty companies have submitted proposals.
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