Puerto Rico is ushering in New Year’s Eve with a near-total blackout, leaving millions of residents of the U.S. territory without electricity during one of the most festive nights of the year. LUMA Energy, the private company responsible for managing the island’s power transmission and distribution systems, described the outage as a “systemwide” blackout and estimated restoration could take 24 to 48 hours.
As of 9:15 a.m. Eastern time, only 14% of the island’s utility customers had electricity, highlighting the fragility of Puerto Rico’s power grid. LUMA Energy began overseeing Puerto Rico’s electrical transmission and distribution systems in June 2021 under a public-private partnership, taking over from the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), which filed for bankruptcy in 2017.
The New York Times reports:
Josué Colón, the executive director of the Puerto Rico chamber of commerce, told Telemundo that he believed restoration would take several days.
The blackout appeared to be significantly bigger than an outage in June that left about 350,000 customers without power.
Puerto Rico has faced a series of blackouts since 2017, when Hurricane Maria severely damaged the island, including its power grid.
“We are demanding answers,” the territory’s governor, Pedro Pierluisi, said on social media. Power companies, he added, “must expedite the restart of the generating units outside the fault area and keep the people duly informed about the measures they are taking to restore service throughout the island.”
I woke up to an explosion last night.
— Micah Erfan (@micah_erfan) December 31, 2024
A huge *BANG* that brought me to the window of the hotel in Puerto Rico I’m staying in.
The island’s power system combusted, and now millions are facing a blackout that will last for days.
This is a story about political mismanagement. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/mwawtMuvPz
The territory’s main airport, Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, continues to operate normally, powered by electric generators.
A Struggling Power System in Crisis
The blackout underscores longstanding issues with Puerto Rico’s electric infrastructure. PREPA, which still manages electricity generation on the island, has undergone restructuring efforts in the years since its bankruptcy but continues to grapple with a legacy of underinvestment and poor maintenance.
Critics argue that Puerto Rico’s unreliable power grid represents the most severe infrastructure challenge in the United States, affecting millions of residents and hampering economic recovery. While LUMA Energy was brought in to modernize and stabilize the grid, outages and delays have fueled public frustration and questions about the effectiveness of the partnership.
For residents, the blackout serves as a stark reminder of the island’s ongoing power struggles, exacerbated by recent hurricanes. New Year’s Eve, normally a time for joyous celebrations, now threatens to become another night of uncertainty as millions of U.S. citizens grapple with the challenges of life without electricity.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
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