Puerto Rico suffered an almost island-wide blackout on New Year’s Eve | Infrastructure news

Puerto Rico plunged into obscurity after it electrical network failure caused a power outage on a large part of the island.

The outage occurred in the early morning hours on Tuesday, the last day of 2024.

Although complete power outages are relatively rare on the island, power outage have generally become a regular occurrence in the years since Hurricane Maria devastated the power grid in 2017.

Puerto Rico’s governor, Pedro Pierluisi, sought to reassure the island of 3.2 million that power would be restored soon. He attributed the “massive blackout” to a “critical failure” in the power grid.

“We can inform you that work is already underway to restore service to the San Juan and Palo Seco plants. We are looking for answers and solutions,” he said wrote on social networks.

The loss of electricity on New Year’s Eve led to a power outage in almost 1.27 million households, out of a total of 1.5 million clients, according to data from the private energy company LUMA, which is responsible for maintaining the electricity network.

From 11:45 local time (15:45 GMT), LUMA reported that only 13.5 percent of his clients had access to power.

The company explained in a social media post that the source of the power outage initially appeared to be an “underground line failure.” This in turn caused an island-wide blackout around 5:30 am local time (9:30 GMT).

“The cause of the failure remains under investigation,” LUMA wrote in his post.

“We have already started the restoration process for some customers, and the whole process will take between 24 and 48 hours, conditions permitting.”

Puerto Rico’s power grid has been a source of frustration for residents for years, even inspiring pop star Bad Bunny to write an ode to the island called El Apagón, or The Blackout.

The Puerto Rican musician was an outspoken critic of LUMA, a joint venture between Canadian and American companies.

Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, also addressed the New Year’s blackout on his Instagram Stories: “This is how New Year’s is spent in Puerto Rico, without electricity. Normal.”

In 2020, LUMA took over the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), a government-run electricity provider, after the latter filed for bankruptcy.

But LUMA itself has faced multiple protests, with concerns over the cost of their services and the nature of the company’s contract with the government. Some say his terms are skewed in favor of LUMA, with few protections for ordinary Puerto Ricans.

Governor-elect Jenniffer González Colón, who is set to succeed Pierluisi on Jan. 2, has indicated she will consider appointing an “energy czar” to review LUMA’s actions and consider other energy suppliers.

Puerto Rico’s power grid crisis reached a tipping point in 2017, when Hurricane Maria, a powerful Category 4 storm, slammed into the island.

Not only was it the deadliest storm to hit Puerto Rico, it also destroyed the island’s aging power grid, creating further life-threatening conditions. After that, power outages were chronic.

U.S. Representative Adriano Espaillat of New York, a Dominican-American, addressed the legacy of Hurricane Maria by calling for reform.

“Since the devastating Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico’s power grid has remained expensive, unstable and unreliable, failing the citizens of Puerto Rico at every turn,” Espaillat wrote.

The US considers Puerto Rico an unincorporated territory, and Espaillat invited outgoing US President Joe Biden do more support the ailing infrastructure of the island.

“Despite billions of dollars committed by the Biden administration to rebuild, much of the funding remains unused, leaving Puerto Rico to face another year of darkness. Bold and immediate action is needed to address this crisis before it is too late,” he said.

But some residents who spoke to The Associated Press Tuesday morning expressed resignation about the ongoing power outages.

“They are part of my everyday life,” Enid Núñez, 49, told the news agency while having breakfast.

She cooked the dish on a gas stove, bought especially for such situations.