LUMA Energy announced that today, Tuesday, during the night and possibly Wednesday there is a “high risk” of power outages and urged Puerto Ricans to conserve energy.
The company responsible for Puerto Rico’s electric transmission and distribution system explained in a written statement that these potential blackouts are due to a “lack of generation.”
Genera PR, which operates the power plants in Puerto Rico, mentioned on Sunday that although they managed to bring Aguirre Unit 1 back online, Aguirre Unit 2 remains out of service due to a problem with the feed pump motor.
The shutdown of Aguirre Unit 2 adds to the outage at Ecoeléctrica, where repairs have removed over 300 megawatts from the system.
In light of this situation, LUMA reminded citizens of the importance of conserving energy and noted that the issue could last for weeks.
“This situation is expected to continue into next week due to problems with outdated generation plants, which have suffered decades of neglect and are now operated by Genera and other companies in the sector,” LUMA said in a statement not signed by any of its top officials.
“Although LUMA is not responsible for generation and does not manage or control it, we have a responsibility to our customers as the system operator. We must be transparent about the current state of the generation fleet and the lack of generation capacity, as this affects our ability to supply power to our customers during peak hours,” they added.
On their website, LUMA Energy recommends using light timers or dimmers, among other tips, to save energy.
