Puerto Rico on Tuesday suffered the latest in a series of widespread power outages that have left 1.3 million people, about 80% of the entire island, in the dark.
More than a million power customers were without power across the U.S. as of 5:30 a.m. due to an infrastructure issue at a power plant on the island’s south coast, energy company LUMA said in an update. in X.
LUMA said in a statement that the fault appeared to be an underground cable and that it was working with partners to restart the island’s power grid.
“LUMA will restore power to customers in phases. We have already begun the process of repowering some customers, and the full restoration process will take 24 to 48 hours, as conditions permit,” the company said.
Josué Colón, director of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, said in a radio interview that a problem with a power line in the south caused a “cascade effect” that caused multiple power plants to fail. He said it would take “the better part of a day” to fix the problem.
The island’s governor, Pedro Pierluisi, said in X that he was in contact with LUMA and the private energy company Genera PR.
“We are demanding answers and solutions from both LUMA and Genera, who must expedite the restart of the generating units outside the failure area and keep the people duly informed about the measures they are taking to restore service throughout the Island,” he said. .
Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport said it was operating with electricity generators but that flights were operating normally.
Power outages are frustrating and frequent for many Puerto Ricans. A series of blackouts over the summer sparked protests and San Juan Mayor Miguel Romero declared a state of emergency.
Those protests led U.S.-owned Genera PR to take over management of formerly state-owned power plants, which are on average 45 years old (twice as long as equivalent facilities in the continental U.S.) and rely on largely from fossil fuels.
More than 700,000 customers were without power in Puerto Rico in August when Tropical Storm Ernesto hit the island.
