More than 50% of Puerto Rico customers remain without power after massive outage
(CNN) — A critical failure in Puerto Rico’s power grid has caused a massive blackout affecting a large part of the island, according to a post on Gov. Pedro Pierluisi’s X account.
The New Year’s Eve blackout began Tuesday morning at 5:30 a.m., according to LUMA Energy, the Canadian-American power company responsible for power distribution and transmission on the island. The outage initially knocked out power to nearly 90% of customers. As of 9 p.m. ET, a little over 765,000 users, or more than 50% of customers, were still without power, but service was restored at hospitals and other major facilities, including the water and sewer authority, the company said.
“We can report that work is already underway to restore service with the San Juan and Palo Seco plants,” Pierluisi said.
“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.”
While the cause of the outage is still under investigation, it appears there was an issue with an underground line, the power company said.
Luma Energy’s Emergency Operations Center is working with Genera and other power collaborators to restore the electrical system and power to the island as quickly as possible, the company said. The full restoration process will take about a day or two, the company added.
President Joe Biden spoke with Pierluisi Tuesday “to discuss the widespread power outages across Puerto Rico and offer any federal assistance that they need,” the White House said. Biden also spoke with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, “and directed her to continue to offer any assistance the Biden Administration can provide to speed power restoration for the people of Puerto Rico.”
Residents expressed their displeasure with the outages on Tuesday ahead of 2025 celebrations.
“Complete frustration,” Sonia Arroyo, a resident of Vega Alta outside of San Juan, told CNN en Español. “Frustration, disappointment with the government, with the institutions, with everything.”
“I am more concerned about the development of this country than about the party,” said Liz Rebeca Aponte of Dorado. “Here we work in the pharmaceutical industry, and industries that want to invest in the country will not come here if we do not improve the structure.”
The outage is just the latest time that Puerto Rico’s inconsistent power system has faltered on a mass scale.
Power outages on the island have been a long-running source of frustration for Puerto Ricans who rely on a fragile and poorly-maintained power grid, with modernization efforts slow to materialize over several decades, first by a publicly-owned entity and today by a private caretaker.
The collapse of the grid in 2017 after Hurricane Maria left hundreds of thousands of people without power for months. The outage was considered the largest blackout in US history in terms of the total number of lost hours of electricity.
Since then, the US Federal Emergency Management Agency has awarded $9.9 billion for permanent projects to repair damage caused by Hurricane Maria. LUMA Energy took over management of the grid in 2021 from the government-owned Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, known as PREPA. Genra PR is in charge of energy production and initiated operations in 2023.
Still, the challenges remain. After Hurricane Ernesto in August, about half of all electric customers on the island were at one point without power, according to LUMA Energy.
This story has been updated with additional information.