San Juan, Puerto Rico – A massive power outage affected most of Puerto Rico early Tuesday as the U.S. territory prepared to celebrate New Year’s Eve. More than 1.2 million of the 1.47 million customers were without power, according to Luma Energy, a private company that oversees electricity transmission and distribution on the island.
LUMA said in a statement early Tuesday that it would likely take between 24 and 48 hours to restore electricity to the entire island, “conditions permitting,” but a few hours later it said service would be cut in some areas was restored, without providing an update on the total number of affected clients.
The company said a medical center and San Juan’s municipal hospital had resumed operations, and that it would provide further updates every few hours on the restoration of services on the island.
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“Although the cause of the disruption is under investigation, preliminary findings point to a disruption on a metro line,” LUMA said in an earlier statement.
Reuters quoted Ivan Baez, a spokesman for Puerto Rico’s primary power generator Genera, as saying that the power grid failure was likely caused by a problem with a line operated by LUMA, but that it had also brought down Genera plants. some other private electricity producers.
Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi said in a social media post that his administration was communicating with both LUMA and Genera “about the massive power outage that affected much of the island due to a critical fault.”
He said efforts were underway to restore electricity supply and that the government “demanded answers and solutions from both LUMA and Genera, which should expedite the restart of production units outside the fault zone and keep the people properly informed of the measures they take. to restore service islandwide.”
However, Josué Colón, head of Puerto Rico’s Electricity Authority, told the Telemundo network late Monday that it could take several days for service to be fully restored.
Puerto Rico continues to suffer from chronic power outages caused by a crumbling electrical grid destroyed by Hurricane Mariaa powerful Category 4 storm that hit the island in September 2017. The system was already in disrepair before the storm due to years of lack of maintenance and investment.
In a message posted on social media Tuesday, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, whose state has one of the largest populations of Puerto Ricans in the U.S. mainland, said residents of the area “have been treated as second-class citizens for far too long treated. “
“The fact that they, as Americans, do not have a reliable electric grid and are constantly experiencing sporadic power outages is indefensible and would not be tolerated anywhere else in the United States,” Cuomo said. “The federal government must finally recognize its responsibility to Puerto Rico and provide the resources and expertise necessary to end this cycle of madness once and for all.”
