Jan. 1 (UPI) — Power was returned to more than three-quarters of Puerto Rico residents on Wednesday morning after a devastating blackout left nearly 80% of the Caribbean Island territory without electricity going into New Year’s Eve.
LUMA Energy, the Canadian-U.S. company that provides electricity transmission to Puerto Rico, said that 85.6% of residents had power as of 10:30 a.m. local time, and power had been restored to more than 1.25 million customers.
LUMA said it has been working with GeneraPR, one of the companies operating power plants on the island, to get electricity flowing throughout the territory.
“We can report that work is already underway to restore services with the San Juan and Palo Seco plants,” Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said, according to CNN.
“We are demanding answers and solutions from both LUMA and Genera, who must expedite the restart of the generating units outside the fault area and keep the people duly informed about measures they are taking to restore service throughout the island,” he said.
LUMA said just before midnight Tuesday that it had restored power to both airports in San Juan and power was confirmed in 31 hospitals, including the Rio Piedras Medical Center. The company said the cause, stemming from long-standing structural grid issues, remained under investigation.
“We continue to communicate and work closely with island officials, the governor, the governor-elect and our mayors to keep them updated,” LUMA said in a statement on Facebook.
“While the exact cause of the outrage remains under investigation, LUMA teams remain focused on the complex process of restoring service to all affected customers.”
Puerto Rico’s electrical grid suffered a failure in November 2017 that left thousands without power after Hurricane Maria, and the entire island was left without power when Hurricane Fiona arrived in 2022.
