DEVELOPING: Massive Power Outage Hits Puerto Rico, Impacts Nearly Entire Island

A massive blackout in Puerto Rico left over 1.3 million customers, approximately 80% of the entire island, without power on New Year’s Eve.

“LUMA has activated its Emergency Operations Center and is currently working with Genera and other generation partners to restart the electrical system and restore power following an island-wide outage that began at 5:30 a.m. While the cause of the outage is under investigation, preliminary findings point to a fault on an underground line. The cause of the fault remains under investigation,” LUMA Energy said in a statement.

“LUMA crews responded immediately and have begun their process to restore power to customers as quickly and safely as possible. LUMA will restore power to customers in phases. We have already begun the process of restoring some customers, and the full process will take between 24-48 hours, conditions permitting. LUMA will provide regular updates on the restoration via its social media channels every two hours,” it added.

Declaraciones (8:30 a.m.): LUMA activa operaciones de emergencia para restaurar la energía después de un apagón en todo el sistema
 
LUMA ha activado su Centro de Operaciones de Emergencia y actualmente está trabajando con Genera y demás colaboradores de generación para reiniciar…

— LUMA Puerto Rico (@lumaenergypr) December 31, 2024

“We are in communication with LUMA and Genera, as well as with the AEE team regarding the massive blackout affecting a large part of the Island due to a critical fault. We can report that work is already underway to restore service with the San Juan and Palo Seco plants,” Gov. Pedro 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,” he added.

Estamos en comunicación con LUMA y Genera, así como con el equipo de la AEE sobre el apagón masivo que afecta a gran parte de la Isla por una falla crítica. Podemos informar que ya se está trabajando en el restablecimiento del servicio con las plantas de San Juan y Palo Seco.…

— Gobernador Pierluisi (@GovPierluisi) December 31, 2024

Per NBC News:

Around 1:30 p.m. local time, LUMA said in a statement that its initial efforts had restored power to about 3% of customers impacted, with restoration to 44,700 customers across the metro area and the island of Culebra.

Power was also restored to the critical Centro Medico and Municipal Hospital in San Juan.

Miosotis Corretjer, a San Juan resident, said the situation was “totally frustrating” and that the government wasn’t doing enough.

“The people say that we don’t want LUMA because it’s the worst service of electricity that we have in the history of our country,” she said. “It’s sad that in this day, the last day of the year, that impacts our holiday traditions, our Navidad, everything is so sad for the people of Puerto Rico.”

Just in: Nearly all of Puerto Rico is without power due to a blackout on New Year’s Eve pic.twitter.com/I9LxwrtxUP

— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) December 31, 2024

WATCH:

Blackout in Puerto Rico as 90% of the island has been hit with a power outage.

Puerto Rico is horribly managed, much like California.

That’s why you see both places constantly having major power issues.

Want this fixed? Get new leaders who aren’t corrupt liberals. pic.twitter.com/jHM2BVWYw3

— Paul A. Szypula (@Bubblebathgirl) December 31, 2024

Per CNN:

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.”

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“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.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at 100 Percent Fed Up.

View the original article here.