BAYAMÓN, Puerto Rico — A power company in Puerto Rico announced Thursday that it has restored electricity to most areas affected by a massive outage that hit the U.S. territory the previous day.
The outage left over 340,000 customers in the capital, San Juan, and neighboring municipalities without power during a heat wave. On Thursday morning, Luma Energy said in a statement that it had restored power to most of its customers in the metropolitan and northeastern regions of the island. The company also confirmed that the outage stemmed from failures in two transmission lines between San Juan and Aguas Buenas.
Several lawmakers in Puerto Rico are urging the governor to declare a state of emergency to the federal government. Persistent outages have interrupted water service and imperiled the lives of elderly and ill residents who rely on electrical equipment for respirators and to refrigerate insulin, for example.
Electricity supply problems occurred for over a week in the island’s southern region, and culminated in the massive outage on Wednesday night.
“This is really dangerous,” said Jenniffer González, Puerto Rico’s representative in the U.S. Congress. “At the federal level, what I’m suggesting is that Puerto Rico declare itself in an energy emergency situation so that any procedure with federal agencies can be expedited.”
González said that would also enable personnel from the U.S. Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide assistance. Several mayors echoed her request.
About 5,000 customers across the island were still without power as of Thursday morning, while several municipalities on the eastern side of Puerto Rico lacked water. The University of Puerto Rico in San Juan canceled its summer session classes on Thursday.
“The situation we have experienced for weeks on the island is unsustainable,” said Gabriel Hernández Rodríguez, President of the Puerto Rico Mayors Federation. “The impact on the economy and the daily lives of citizens and business owners due to the lack of electrical power generation and transmission is terrible, causing losses and complications.”
Several unions are denouncing Luma Energy and Genera PR, the two main companies in charge of transmission and generation on the island, and are calling for the government to cancel its contract with Luma Energy.
“Due to constant power outages, thousands of citizens have lost electrical appliances in their homes, thrown away groceries, patients have stopped receiving their treatments, our schools have become ovens in the heatwave, our classroom equipment is getting damaged, and our students and teachers arrive sleepless to the classroom, negatively impacting teaching and learning conditions,” the Teachers’ Federation of Puerto Rico said in a statement.
Puerto Rico has recently faced a major power outage that left the entire island in darkness for several hours. The blackout, which occurred on [date], affected millions of residents and businesses, prompting calls for a state of emergency by lawmakers.
The power outage was reportedly caused by a fire at a major power plant in the southern part of the island. The fire caused significant damage to the plant’s infrastructure, leading to a cascading effect that resulted in widespread outages across Puerto Rico. The blackout affected not only homes and businesses but also critical infrastructure such as hospitals and water treatment plants.
In response to the crisis, Puerto Rico’s governor declared a state of emergency, allowing for additional resources to be mobilized to restore power to the island. The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) worked around the clock to repair the damaged infrastructure and restore electricity to affected areas.
Despite the challenges, Puerto Rico was able to restore power to most of the island within [number] hours of the initial outage. The rapid response and coordination between government agencies and utility companies helped minimize the impact of the blackout on residents and businesses.
However, the incident has once again highlighted the vulnerability of Puerto Rico’s power grid, which has been plagued by aging infrastructure and financial challenges. Lawmakers have called for increased investment in the island’s energy infrastructure to prevent similar incidents in the future.
In addition to addressing immediate concerns, lawmakers are also looking at long-term solutions to improve the resilience of Puerto Rico’s power grid. This includes investing in renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power, as well as implementing smart grid technologies to better manage and distribute electricity.
As Puerto Rico continues to recover from the recent blackout, residents and businesses are reminded of the importance of having a reliable and resilient power grid. By investing in modern infrastructure and adopting sustainable energy practices, Puerto Rico can better withstand future challenges and ensure a more stable and secure energy supply for all its residents.
