BAYAMÓN, Puerto Rico — The electrical supply in Puerto Rico has largely been restored after a significant blackout occurred just before New Year’s Eve. By Wednesday afternoon, Luma Energy, the private company responsible for managing the island’s power transmission and distribution, reported that electricity had returned for approximately 98% of the 1.47 million customers affected.
The return of power has brought relief not just to homes but also to essential services, including hospitals, water treatment plants, and sewage facilities. This widespread outage revealed ongoing struggles with Puerto Rico’s electrical infrastructure, which has faced many challenges over the years.
Despite the progress in restoring power, Luma Energy cautioned that customers may still experience short-term outages in the coming days. Complete restoration may take up to two days as they work to balance the energy load available throughout the system. Juan Saca, the president of Luma Energy, stated in a communication, “We will need to manage the load based on the available generation. This will likely require load shedding across the system.”
The blackout began early Tuesday morning, around 5:30 a.m., leaving much of the island in darkness just as people prepared for their New Year’s celebrations. The cause is still under investigation, but preliminary findings from Luma suggest a failure in an underground power line in the southern region of the territory.
In light of the situation, the newly elected governor, Jenniffer González Colón, who will take office on Thursday, urged residents to be mindful of their electricity consumption to help ease the situation and allow for a smoother recovery of the system. She expressed her commitment to addressing these pressing energy issues during her campaign, including the appointment of an energy czar to oversee the network that has suffered from years of neglect.
The island’s power grid was severely damaged following Hurricane Maria in September 2017, a storm that caused catastrophic impacts. The reliability of electricity remains a common challenge for Puerto Ricans, leading to frustration in their daily lives. Over the summer, extreme weather conditions caused power outages affecting over 340,000 customers, while a significant portion of the island lost electricity during Hurricane Ernesto in August.
The New Year’s Eve blackout also came at a time when residents faced increasing electricity rates. Last month, the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau approved a rate hike of 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour for residential customers, which is set to raise average household electricity bills by nearly $20.
As Puerto Rico navigates these energy challenges, the hope is that better management and oversight can lead to more reliable power supply for its residents in the future.
