Puerto Rico's Power Crisis: New Year's Eve Blackout Highlights Grid Challenges

What Happened?

Puerto Rico's power grid has experienced a major blackout. It has affected a large part of the island.

The New Year's Eve blackout started on Tuesday morning at 5:30 a.m. The initial outage took out power to nearly 90% of LUMA Energy customers, the company responsible for power distribution and operations on the island.

By the late afternoon, approximately 1.1 million users accounted for over 70% of customers on the island were still without power. However, service was restored at hospitals and a few other major facilities.

Puerto Rican Governor Pierluisi has demanded answers:

‘We are demanding answers and solutions from both Luma and Genera, who must expedite the restart of the generating units outside the fault area and keep the people duly informed about the measures they are taking to restore service throughout the Island.’

An official cause for the outage has not been discovered, although according to officials from LUMA, there was an issue with an underground line.

Why it Matters

The power company is working with Genera and other power collaborators to begin restoration efforts to the electrical system and reestablish the electrical system to bring back power to the island as soon as possible. Representatives from the company estimate that the process will take a day or two.

President Biden spoke with the governor later on Tuesday to discuss the power outages across the island. He offered federal assistance to help with efforts. Biden also spoke with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, saying he ‘directed her to continue to offer any assistance the Biden Administration can provide to speed power restoration for the people of Puerto Rico.’

The New Year's Eve outages are hardly the only time that Puerto Rico has had issues with its power grid. It has repeatedly faltered in the past. Power outages have historically been a big issue for the island and a major source of frustration for residents.

While modernization efforts have been made in recent decades, they have been slow to materialize.

What it Means

The power grid collapsed in 2017 after Hurricane Maria and left hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans without power for several months. The outage was the largest blackout in U.S. history in total number of lost hours with no electricity.

FEMA has awarded $9.9 billion to the island for permanent projects to repair damage from the hurricane in 2017. Since then, LUMA Energy has taken over management of the grid, taking the helm back in 2021.

Previously, control of the grid was run by the government-owned Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or PREPA.

Despite the changes in management and efforts to modernize the island's infrastructure, challenges remain.