By Luis Ferré-Sadurni, Victor Mather, Eduardo Medina and Christina Morales
A massive blackout struck Puerto Rico early Tuesday morning, enveloping the majority of the island in darkness on New Year’s Eve.
Throughout the island, which has been historically affected by frequent power outages, residents awoke to a sense of familiar resignation and profound frustration, with officials cautioning that the outage might last through the New Year’s Eve festivities.
Only around 13% of Puerto Rico’s 1.4 million utility customers had electricity on Tuesday morning during what was labeled a “systemwide” blackout, according to LUMA Energy, responsible for the island’s electric power transmission and distribution. The private group reported restoring service to approximately 44,700 customers — roughly 3% of those impacted — by 1 p.m., but did not clarify how many continued to be without power.
LUMA stated on social media that “initial assessments indicate a fault in an underground line.” They indicated plans to restore power in stages, mentioning that “the entire procedure could span 24-48 hours, depending on conditions.” In another statement, the company confirmed that service had resumed at San Juan Medical Center and Municipal Hospital.
Josué Colón Ortiz, executive director of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, informed Telemundo that he anticipated restoration would take several days.
Since 2017, Puerto Rico has endured a series of power losses, originating with the damage inflicted by Hurricane Maria, which devastated the island and its power infrastructure.
This blackout seemed considerably larger than more recent outages over the summer. A blackout in June left roughly 350,000 customers powerless. In August, following Hurricane Ernesto, the figure reached 700,000.
“We demand accountability,” asserted the territory’s governor, Pedro Pierluisi, on social media. He stated that power companies “must hasten the restart of generation units outside the affected area and keep the public well-informed about the steps being taken to restore service across the island.”
Governor-elect Jenniffer González Colón, set to be inaugurated today, expressed outrage at the latest power outage in Puerto Rico.
“We cannot endure an energy system that fails our citizens so severely,” González Colón stated, directing her frustration not just at the “massive” blackout, but also at “the uncertainty regarding when power will be reinstated.”
The governor-elect has committed to establishing the Office of the Energy Czar to oversee the private entities operating the energy system and pledged to explore avenues to terminate the contract with struggling LUMA Energy.
Both LUMA and Genera PR, the private operator of the island’s aging power plants, have encountered backlash in recent years for Puerto Rico’s frequently unreliable power grid.
Requests for comments sent via email on Tuesday morning resulted in automated responses from representatives of both firms stating they would be unavailable until January.
Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, the busiest airport in Puerto Rico, announced on Tuesday that it was “operating normally thanks to backup generators.” An individual from the administrator’s office of the Hospital Caribbean Medical Center in Fajardo reported that the facility was functioning normally, relying on four generators.
The blackout posed a threat to the New Year’s celebrations, which Puerto Ricans typically observe by gathering in public squares and family homes to enjoy food, drinks, and fireworks.
Ilia Quiñones mentioned that her morning appointment at a beauty salon was canceled due to Plaza Las Américas, the largest shopping mall on the island, mostly shutting down. She was scheduled to prepare for an annual New Year’s gathering her sister hosts for around 50 family members at a ranch in Gurabo, a mountainous area just south of San Juan.
Her sister had spent over a month planning the event, but now the festivities were uncertain as the ranch lacks a generator. The family was deliberating whether to hold the celebration outside using battery-operated lanterns.
“Bring your own lantern,” Quiñones joked, adding: “People are so accustomed to this that we’ve settled for mediocrity.”
