Hours before Puerto Ricans planned to start celebrating New Year’s Eve on Tuesday, Dec. 31, a blackout hit nearly all of the island, leaving more than 1.3 million customers without power. Officials said it could take days before power is restored to those impacted.
Nearly 90% of the U.S. territory’s 1.5 million clients were reportedly without power on Tuesday.
Officials said they believe the power outage is due to an underground line failure.
The blackout is reportedly directing more anger from Puerto Ricans toward Luma Energy and Genera PR.
The companies are in charge of the island’s power generation and many residents want them out over chronic power outages.
Meanwhile, Puerto Rican Governor-elect Jenniffer González-Colón, who will take office on Thursday, Jan. 2, has threatened to revoke Luma Energy’s contract with Puerto Rico over its failure to curb power outages. The governor-elect also wants the island to use more fossil fuels.
González is proposing that Puerto Rico drop some clean energy targets and instead use more natural gas.
Currently, the U.S. territory is committed to 100% renewable energy by 2050.
González argued the goal is unrealistic and risks losing qualified companies from coming in to provide more reliable power to residents.
Puerto Rico’s power grid has suffered from years of neglect and a lack of investment while still reeling from damage due to Hurricane Maria back in 2017.
Only recently did crews begin making permanent repairs to the power grid following Hurricane Maria. Residents continue to rely on aging generators provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to stabilize the grid.
In November, Puerto Rico’s government asked for permission from FEMA officials to continue using the generators for an additional two years.
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