Over a million customers in Puerto Rico were without power after energy plants across the island unexpectedly shut down, officials said.
Luma Energy, a private company that operates power transmission and distribution, reported that the outage began at about 12:40 p.m. local time on April 16. The company said “an event was recorded that affected service island-wide,” meaning all 1.4 million customers on the island were without power.
Genera PR, the company that generates power on the island, said the “massive power outage” was due to the shut down of all generating plants, including the company’s plants and other private generators.
“This situation has caused a significant disruption to electrical service, and we are currently collaborating with (Luma Energy) to identify the recovery process,” Genera PR said in a statement. “Our team is working immediately to bring backup units online and investigate the causes of this sudden event.”
By 5:30 p.m., Luma Energy said crews had started the process of reestablishing the electrical system. The company noted that one of island’s power plants went online at around 3 p.m., which “represents a key step towards the system’s recovery.”
The company estimated that it will take between 48 and 72 hours for service to be restored for 90% of customers. The island-wide blackout hit just days ahead of Easter weekend — a majority of the territory’s population identifies as Catholic and the island observes the holiday all week.
Puerto Rico has long dealt with chronic power outages. The last major power outage on the island was on New Year’s Eve, when around 1.2 million customers were left in the dark, taking two days for crews to restore power.
In September 2017, Hurricane Maria obliterated the island’s power grid, which has remained fragile and under reconstruction.
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Puerto Rico airport, hospitals running on generators
Puerto Rico’s Bureau for Emergency Management and Disaster Administration said in a statement that it has partially activated its emergency operations center to coordinate information and respond to emergencies.
Earlier on April 16, the agency said it was also working with personnel from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, LUMA Energy, and Genera PR to coordinate work between agencies and address emergencies.
The Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport was running on electric generators and limited some of its services, the airport said in a statement.
“Flights are operating normally and are uninterrupted,” the airport added. “We recommend passengers to arrive to the airport with sufficient time.”
Verónica Ferraiuoli, Puerto Rico’s designated secretary of state, said hospitals were also running on generator power,
. Ferraiuoli is acting as governor in the absence of Gov. Jenniffer González-Colón, who was traveling.
“Both Interim Governor Veronica Ferraiuoli and Energy Czar Josué Colón are working diligently with the entire energy sector to address the outage that has affected a large number of customers,” González-Colón said in a statement. “We will provide updates as soon as more details become available regarding the cause of the outage and the timeframe for restoring service.”
Contributing: Reuters
