By Nicole
Acevedo
At least 1.2 million people in Puerto Rico were still without power Thursday afternoon after a nighttime fire at a major power plant caused the biggest blackout so far this year, forcing classes to be canceled, businesses to close and government offices.
The blackout angered Puerto Ricans already frustrated with an electrical system that was impacted by Hurricane Maria in 2017. Emergency repairs were made at the time, but rebuilding and essential work to modernize the island's aging and unreliable power grid it hasn't started yet.
Power company officials blame aging and poorly maintained infrastructure for continued blackouts.
The two entities in charge of supplying electrical services to 3.2 million Puerto Ricans have not been able to say with certainty when the electrical supply will be fully restored or what caused the circuit breaker failure at the Costa Sur generation plant, one of the four main ones on the island. , which triggered the massive blackout.
Cars stalled in traffic along RH Tood Avenue in San Juan, Puerto Rico, after an accident during a blackout on Thursday, April 7, 2022. Carlos Giusti / AP
Luma Energy, the private Canadian-American company that took over power transmission and distribution in Puerto Rico last year, said its crews have been working nonstop to restore service.
As of early Thursday afternoon, at least 300,000 customers had restored power, but restoration efforts
"could extend into Friday in some locations."
The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, the public corporation that is in bankruptcy and is in charge of controlling the power generation units, said that the municipalities of Vieques and Culebra have received all the energy through a "submarine cable" .
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The blackout also left some 168,000 customers without water and brought traffic to a standstill across the island, which was further affected by the roar of generators and the smell of diesel.
"The entire island was left without power."
A community leader talks about the blackout in Puerto Rico
April 7, 202206:54
Noticias Telemundo affiliate in Puerto Rico reported late Thursday morning that some eight gas stations on the island ran out of fuel after some people rushed to get it to power generators.
At a press conference Thursday afternoon, government officials said the island has enough fuel for 60 days.
"This is awful"
Those who couldn't afford the generators and who have medical problems like diabetes, whose treatment sometimes depends on refrigerated insulin, worried about how much longer they would be without power.
"This is horrible," said Luisa Rosado, a mother of two who lives in Río Piedras, a San Juan neighborhood, as she lamented rising electricity bills.
Puerto Ricans already pay nearly twice as much as customers in the United States for unreliable service.
A fire at a power plant in Puerto Rico leaves some 350,000 users without electricity
April 7, 202202:21
"Invoices increase and a perfect service is not provided. The level of impunity is absurd," Rosado assured.
Luma Energy vice president Kevin Acevedo said the "system is being restored little by little," adding that the company is trying to complete the work within 24 hours.
"The people of Puerto Rico have to understand that it is a system with many years," he
added.
“Recovering it is a delicate and complicated process.”
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The federal government has already committed $12 billion in federal aid to renovate Puerto Rico's energy sector.
According to Luma, some of that money is currently being used to replace outdated switches like the one that caught fire at the Costa Sur generation plant.
A citizen fills some tanks with gasoline to recharge the electric generator of his residence in the municipality of Carolina in Puerto Rico. EFE
At a press conference Thursday afternoon in front of the damaged power plant, another Luma official said that
many of the circuit breakers being replaced are more than 40 years old, although such equipment normally has a 30-year lifespan.
In 2020, a series of strong earthquakes that hit the south of Puerto Rico, where the Costa Sur plant is located, also damaged it.
The Electric Power Authority is trying to restructure a public debt of 9,000 million dollars to get out of a long bankruptcy.
The company has been fighting corruption, mismanagement and lack of maintenance for decades.
In June last year, a major fire at a substation in the capital of San Juan left hundreds of thousands of people without power.
Another similar incident at a power plant in September 2016 caused an island-wide blackout.
