How 90% of Puerto Rico Lost Power on New Year’s Eve
Image courtesy of Lorie Shaull under Attribution 2.0 Generic Deed, resized to 700 x 391 pixels.
The massive power outage that killed the power for about 90% of Puerto Rico on New Year’s Eve 2024 was caused by several factors, according to Luma Energy, the company that operates the island’s T&D system.
What Caused the New Year’s Even Blackout in Puerto Rico?
All told, about 1.3 million Luma customers lost power on New Year’s Eve. This equates to about 90% of the company’s 1.47 million customers. Roughly half of the outages were restored within 24 hours, and the overall power restoration was accomplished in about 2 days.
Luma said the blackout was caused by the failure of an underground power line. However, this is on the heels of a long-term trend that has seen the island’s power infrastructure degrade substantially.
For years, the island has suffered through chronic power outages, exasperated by a lack of maintenance and investment. And the situation was pushed past the tipping point after Hurricane Maria crushed the island in 2017. In fact, electrical workers just started making the permanent repairs to recover from Maria’s destruction, many years after the actual event. Prior to this, temporary repairs have remained in place for the past 7 years.
This is why Luma, as well as the island’s generation operator Genera PR, has received a ton of backlash on social media. Many of the island’s residents want heads to roll.
In addition, Governor-elect Jennifer González Colón has called for the creation of an “energy czar” to review potential Luma contractual breaches while another operator is found. Meanwhile, Gov. Pedro Pierluisi has reached out to both companies to demand corrective measures.
The bottom line is that the people of Puerto Rico will continue to suffer through countless power disruptions for the foreseeable future. The T&D infrastructure will take years to completely recover, and that assumes the requisite funding will be available to see all the necessary projects through top completion. It also assumes that Puerto Rico is spared from another massive hurricane in the near term. Yikes.
