Power slowly returns to Puerto Rico after sudden island-wide blackout
Approximately 47% of customers in Puerto Rico have had their power restored after a n i sland-wide outage on Wednesday that affected 1.4 million.
Power company LUMA said over 689,000 customers have had power as of 8:45 a.m. Thursday.
The blackout that hit around 12:40 p.m. on Wednesday also left over 300,000 people without water, snarled traffic and caused businesses to close all during Holy Week.
It was the second sweeping power outage to rock the island in less than four months, with the last one unfolding on New Year's Eve.
Puerto Rico Gov. Jenniffer González Colón said in a Wednesday press conference that she was told the outage was due to the transmission of power, not generators. She noted that every day that goes by without electricity, the island's economy loses $230 million.
LUMA Energy stated in a Wednesday statement that the blackout was "caused by a combination of factors," including a protection system failure as the initial trigger, followed by the presence of vegetation on a transmission line between Cambalache and Manatí, according to the preliminary investigation.
The company stated that service is estimated to be restored for 90% of customers within the next 48 hours.
By Thursday morning, over 224,000 customers, or about 17%, were temporarily without water service due to the outage, but 83% of customers had a normal supply of drinking water, Puerto Rico's Water and Sewer Authority said.
"Our personnel are working tirelessly to restore service to affected areas as soon as possible, and we project that the percentage of supply customers will continue to increase as the power system regains its generation capacity," the agency said.
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Over half of Puerto Rico still without power after island-wide blackout
Power has been returned to just over 40% of Puerto Rico following an island-wide blackout on Wednesday, the territory's energy distributor has said. The loss of power affected the main international airport, several hospitals and hotels filled with Easter holidaymakers. The blackout also worsened traffic, forced hundreds of businesses to close and left those unable to afford generators scrambling to buy ice and candles. It was not immediately clear what caused the shutdown. The outage hit shortly after noon local time (5pm UK time) on Wednesday and left 1.4 million customers without electricity and 328,000 without water. Crews have been working to restore electricity and at least 175,000 customers, or 12%, had power back at the end of Wednesday. Luma Energy, which provides power to the whole of Puerto Rico, said in a post on X that power had been restored for around 609,711 customers - representing 41.5% of its total customer base - as of 7am local time (12pm UK time). Meanwhile, officials expect 90% of customers to have power back within 48 to 72 hours of the outage. The outage marks the second island-wide blackout to hit Puerto Rico in less than four months, with the previous one occurring on New Year's Eve. The roar of generators and smell of fumes filled the air as a growing number of Puerto Ricans renewed calls for the government to cancel its contracts with Luma Energy and Genera PR, which oversees the generation of power on the island. Jenniffer Gonzalez, the governor of Puerto Rico, promised to heed those calls. Ms Gonzalez, who cut her holiday short and returned to Puerto Rico following Wednesday's blackout, said: "That is not under doubt or question... It is unacceptable that we have failures of this kind." Ms Gonzalez said a major outage like the one that occurred on Wednesday leads to an estimated daily revenue loss of $230m (£174m). Ramon C Barquín III, president of the United Retail Center, a non-profit organisation that represents small and medium-sized businesses, warned that ongoing outages would spook potential investors at a time that Puerto Rico urgently needs economic development. "We cannot continue to repeat this cycle of blackouts without taking concrete measures to strengthen our energy infrastructure," he said. Many were concerned about Puerto Rico's elderly population, with the mayor of the town of Canovanas deploying brigades to visit the bedridden and those who depend on electronic medical equipment. Meanwhile, the mayor of Vega Alta municipality opened a centre to provide power to those with lifesaving medical equipment. Daniel Hernandez, vice president of operations at Genera PR, said on Wednesday that a disturbance hit the transmission system shortly after noon, a time when the grid is vulnerable because there are few machines regulating frequency at that hour. Puerto Rico has struggled with chronic outages since September 2017 when Hurricane Maria pummelled the island as a powerful Category 4 storm, razing a power grid that crews are still struggling to rebuild. The grid had already been deteriorating as a result of decades of a lack of maintenance and investment.
NBC News
17-04-2025
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Power slowly returns to Puerto Rico after sudden island-wide blackout
Approximately 47% of customers in Puerto Rico have had their power restored after a n i sland-wide outage on Wednesday that affected 1.4 million. Power company LUMA said over 689,000 customers have had power as of 8:45 a.m. Thursday. The blackout that hit around 12:40 p.m. on Wednesday also left over 300,000 people without water, snarled traffic and caused businesses to close all during Holy Week. It was the second sweeping power outage to rock the island in less than four months, with the last one unfolding on New Year's Eve. Puerto Rico Gov. Jenniffer González Colón said in a Wednesday press conference that she was told the outage was due to the transmission of power, not generators. She noted that every day that goes by without electricity, the island's economy loses $230 million. LUMA Energy stated in a Wednesday statement that the blackout was "caused by a combination of factors," including a protection system failure as the initial trigger, followed by the presence of vegetation on a transmission line between Cambalache and Manatí, according to the preliminary investigation. The company stated that service is estimated to be restored for 90% of customers within the next 48 hours. By Thursday morning, over 224,000 customers, or about 17%, were temporarily without water service due to the outage, but 83% of customers had a normal supply of drinking water, Puerto Rico's Water and Sewer Authority said. "Our personnel are working tirelessly to restore service to affected areas as soon as possible, and we project that the percentage of supply customers will continue to increase as the power system regains its generation capacity," the agency said.
Reuters
17-04-2025
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Puerto Rico power restored to 41.5% of customers after island-wide blackout
April 17 (Reuters) - Puerto Rico power company Luma Energy said it restored power to about 41.5% of customers by Thursday morning after an island-wide blackout on Wednesday. Luma said on its website that around 609,711 of its roughly 1.5 million customers had service at 6:25 a.m. local time. The Reuters Power Up newsletter provides everything you need to know about the global energy industry. Sign up here. "Our crews will continue working throughout the day to ensure that 90% of customers have service restored within the next 48 hours," Luma Energy said in a statement. This is just the latest in a series of massive blackouts that left residents in the dark in the U.S. island territory since much of the grid had to be rebuilt after being destroyed by Hurricane Maria in 2017, including, most recently, on New Year's Eve. "As part of our response efforts, we are investigating the cause of this incident, including what role and effect the long-recognized impact of the fragility of the system had on this island-wide outage," the company said. Luma Energy is a joint venture between units of Canadian energy firm ATCO ( opens new tab and U.S. construction and engineering firm Quanta Services (PWR.N), opens new tab.
