Power in Puerto Rico is still hit or miss
Five months ago, Puerto Rico began its plunge into the longest blackout in U.S. history.
After much struggle and a botched contract to restore power, the island showed some progress in its recovery from Hurricane Maria. Then Sunday, the lights went out again: An explosion and fire at two power plants shrouded much of the northern part of the island in darkness.
Most customers hit by the blackout had their power restored by Monday. But the blackout underscores the challenges of recovering from a major storm on an island with aging infrastructure. It’s a reminder that the U.S. territory probably has a longer, tougher road to recovery than states battered by storms last year.
Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm with 155-mph winds, ripped through the island Aug. 20. It destroyed thousands of homes, killed at least 64 people and left thousands without electricity or water for months. As of Monday, 99% of customers in Puerto Rico had running water, and 84% of the island had power. More than 400,000 customers still don’t have electricity.
Sunday’s blackout happened when fires knocked out two substations near San Juan, power company spokesman Geraldo Quinones told the Associated Press. The substations were repaired by dawn, and most customers — including Puerto Rico’s largest public hospital and its main international airport — had power restored, he said.
The outage is the latest in a series of setbacks that has prevented the island’s recovery. The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or PREPA, is heavily in debt and struggling to patch up a power grid that is outdated and in dire need of restoration. A U.S. contractor initially hired by the power company to restore electricity was fired after delays and controversies over how the contract was awarded.
Rosselló said last month that he plans to privatize PREPA, which relies on infrastructure nearly three times older than the industry average. It would be the largest restructuring of a public entity in U.S. history.
“The same inefficiencies that have dragged the utility for decades remain,” PREPA board president Jose Carrion said Monday “Of all the realities (Hurricanes) Irma and Maria confronted us with, without a doubt the most evident is that Puerto Rico’s energy system does not work.”