The Recent Blackouts in Puerto Rico Underscore Political Problems
Hundreds of thousands of people have been without power this month.
On Monday June 10, a power outage befell towns in central and southern Puerto Rico. The inability of LUMA Energy, the power company, to restore service in a timely manner has forced authorities in Puerto Rico to activate an emergency response team and bring food distribution to those in need. This was just eight days after an outage on June 2 that left tens of thousands of clients without power: In that case, the cause was a transformer that collapsed after being used far beyond its capacity.
Officials with LUMA Energy, which operates transmission and distribution for Puerto Rico’s power authority, have said repairs could take more than a month. The announcement has sparked widespread anger, especially since the outage has disrupted water service and comes amid daily excessive heat warnings, with the hurricane season just starting.
The outlook does not look encouraging for the residents of Aibonito, Coamo, and Santa Isabel regarding the new transformer: It was supposed to be moved by the middle of this month, but now LUMA mentioned that they postponed it to next July, for reasons of logistics. But what do they want the residents of these towns to do?
Last Wednesday, the power went out across the archipelago, leaving almost 400,000 clients without power (including me). LUMA blames tall trees for cutting a cable, and the governor Pedro Pierluisi argued that LUMA “lacks a sense of urgency” and added, in a press conference on Thursday, June 13, one day after the blackout: “If it is confirmed that there was negligence here on the part of the entity, the government is not going to reimburse the costs incurred by them to restore service to our people... They will have to pay for that out of their own pocket, if it is confirmed that there was negligence here.”
There is a lot of irony in seeing the governor like this, complaining and threatening LUMA for its poor service. Since the company’s takeover was approved by the Fiscal Board to be the company responsible for electricity generation and its infrastructure, blackouts have increased. Between April 2023 and March 2024, customers were without service an average of 1,414 minutes, or the equivalent of almost 24 hours, a figure that is 14 times above standards for industry, according to the United States Department of Energy. But why didn't Governor Pierluisi question or discredit LUMA before, as every good governor should do, before losing the primaries and knowing that he will not be governor after the elections in November of this year? Is it because he no longer has anything to lose?
On Friday, June 14, the president of LUMA Energy, Juan Saca, said in a press conference in La Fortaleza, that if the company assumes the cost of equipment damaged by the recent blackouts, it would be reflected in an increase in the bill of its clients. In other words, the customer is being penalized for the company's problems. “I speak directly to the people of Puerto Rico with great empathy and sensitivity because I know what it means to lose belongings. Since LUMA began operating, no company was going to take responsibility for everyone's belongings," Saca said.
On the other hand, to counteract or seek independent means of generating electricity goes hand in hand with improving energy sources through renewable energy. In recent years, homes and businesses in Puerto Rico have moved quickly to install solar panels on their roofs along with batteries because of the unreliability of the energy company.
A new report by the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis has analyzed the situation:
Despite a sustained, multi-tiered institutional consensus that took years to develop, those in charge of the grid’s day-to-day operation are pursuing aggressive plans for natural gas expansion. The company in charge of power generation has a business model that is based on the creation, development and expansion of natural gas, utilizing a highly speculative investment strategy. The company, New Fortress Energy, recently told its investors that Puerto Rico’s future is natural gas. Recent transactions spearheaded by the company, with the approval of the island government, appear designed to lead to such a result.
On the other hand, the projects of solar energy managed by the government or approved by the government on large scales have been constructed or planned on agricultural lands rather than land that cannot be used for farming or on top of buildings.
On August 15, 2023, six such organizations sued the Government of Puerto Rico for approving the construction of industrial renewable energy projects on land of high agricultural and ecological value in violation of various laws and the Land Use Plan. It is clear that we need to change our energy sources from oil to green energy, but impacting fertile lands is neither logical nor positive, as long as there are already impacted and abandoned lands that could be used for these projects.
However, the government has already approved the first phase of 18 projects that occupy 20,033 square meters on land classified as Special Agricultural Reserve and Specially Protected Rustic Land that, according to the Puerto Rico Land Use Plan, must be protected. There are also another 80 projects of the same nature waiting to be approved, taking up more land that can be used for agriculture.
If you want to read more about the impact of these industrial solar panels projects on agricultural lands, become a paid subscriber and read my two-part interview with Dr. Luis Alexis, author of the newsletter La Fiambrera.