Most of Puerto Rico hit by New Year’s Eve power outage
san juan puerto rico A massive power outage hit nearly all 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 are without power, according to Luma Energy, the private company that oversees the transmission and distribution of electricity on the island.
Luma said in a statement “Conditions permitting,” it could take 24 to 48 hours to restore power across the island.
“While the cause of the outage is under investigation, preliminary findings indicate a fault in the underground line,” the company said.
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Reuters quoted Ivan Baez, a spokesman for Puerto Rico’s main energy generator Genera, as saying that the grid failure was believed to be caused by problems with lines operated by LUMA, but also paralyzed Genera’s power plants. Some other private generators.
Puerto Rico Governor Pedro Pierluisi said in a statement Post on social media His government is communicating with LUMA and Genera “about widespread power outages due to severe faults affecting large parts of the island”.
He said work to restore power supply was ongoing and the government was “demanding answers and solutions from LUMA and Genera that they must expedite the restarting of generators outside the fault area and keep people informed of the measures they are taking” to restore power across the island. Serve. “
However, Puerto Rico Electricity Authority Director Josué Colón said in an interview with Telemundo network on Monday night: Said it might take a few days to fully restore service.
Puerto Rico continues to struggle with prolonged power outages as the grid collapses. Flattened by Hurricane MariaIn September 2017, a powerful Category 4 storm hit the island. The system was already declining before the storm due to years of lack of maintenance and investment.
