PREPA’s Woes Continue
“It’s like déjà vu all over again.” That is what baseball icon Yogi Berra would likely have said about the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s continuing woes. In this month alone, the public corporation has reported a number of selected blackouts due to an electricity “generation deficit.”
Unit 6 at the Central Costa Sur powerplant had been out of service since Aug. 20 due to a mechanical failure, while the San Juan powerplant’s unit 5 was undergoing maintenance service.
On Monday morning, PREPA explained that a sargassum “event” entered the system, plugged the filters and slipped through a pipe, which caused a “forced exit” of unit 1 of the Aguirre powerplant. The situation caused the interruption of electricity service to thousands of customers.
According to the PREPA portal that indicates customers without service, at 7 a.m. Monday, there were more than 27,000 clients without electricity.
Later that morning there was more bad news. LUMA Energy - the private company in charge of energy transmission and distribution - reported on its social media accounts a “limited generation event,” which means that service interruptions had begun. PREPA reported that more than 100,000 islandwide were without electricity service. The most affected regions are Caguas, Mayagüez, Ponce and San Juan. Shortly thereafter, PREPA reported on social networks a break in the boiler of unit 3 at the Palo Seco powerplant.
On Tuesday morning, more than 100,000 PREPA clients, from San Juan to Arecibo, were out of service due to a breakdown at Palo Seco.
PREPA Executive Director Efran Paredes assured the public that the “electricity generation situation” should be normalized by today (Wednesday). “These are unexpected events and we are attacking them with the greatest speed. There is no hidden agenda or anything. PREPA’s objective is to provide service without any interruption and we are working for that,” he said.
In the midst of the crisis, the president of PREPA’s governing board, Ralph Kreil Rivera, resigned, while Gov. Pedro Pierluisi expressed his dissatisfaction. “The situation with the electrical system that has been developing in recent days is unacceptable and the recurring technical failures at PREPA are unsustainable,” he said.
LUMA Touts Progress Made
For its part, LUMA touted that during its first 100 days operating Puerto Rico’s electric power transmission and distribution system, a solid foundation had been laid for the island to have reliable, resilient and sustainable electricity at reasonable prices.
“The Public-Private Partnership that LUMA entered for the operation of the transmission and distribution system is the first critical step in a journey that will lead to the modern electric power system that Puerto Rico deserves; a process that also includes the eventual private operation of PREPA’s generation fleet and the utility’s crucial exit from bankruptcy. Our more than 3,000 employees have worked tirelessly to stabilize our operation and significantly improve customer service, paving the way for the exciting work ahead. This transformation will be a decade-long endeavor that will invest billions of dollars into the Puerto Rican economy and give the people of Puerto Rico a 21st century electric power system,” said LUMA President and CEO Wayne Stensby.
He said LUMA has made “significant progress” in stabilizing and beginning maintenance of the fragile transmission and distribution system. This includes the completion of over 51,000 service calls, vegetation management and bringing back into service four substations, some of which had been out of service since Hurricane Maria in 2017.
LUMA is managing 65 projects approved by FEMA, representing an investment of $2.8 billion. The projects, in various stages of development, include transmission, distribution and substation works slated to start construction in 2022, Stensby said.
As reported by THE WEEKLY JOURNAL, a technical hearing held last week by the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau (PREB), found that LUMA was unable to bill at least 39,000 clients in August and as a result, estimated invoices were made.
The data raised questions about how the company in charge of the energy distribution and transmission system is going to guarantee that it does not double bill customers and how they will ensure that the subscribers are given the adjustment based on the prices of the corresponding months.
The hearing was called to evaluate LUMA’s request to increase the electricity rate by 2.49 cents from October 1 to December 31. LUMA executives assured that they have taken provisions to ensure the next billings will be done correctly and that they will work to improve the failures.