Given the financial and operational failures during PREPA’s 40-year tenure, LUMA is absolutely committed to fiscal responsibility, avoiding the failures of the past, and performing all operations to the highest industry standards. Baseless and false critiques of LUMA’s team members, operations and fiscal planning, such as those made by Josue Colon Ortiz, the Executive Director of PREPA, in a letter to the Fiscal Oversight Management Board (FOMB) are not only wrong, but they also serve to undermine the important mission we all have: to build a better energy future for the people of Puerto Rico.  

Specifically, the letter sent by Colon to the FMOB contained multiple falsehoods, and misleading and erroneous information concerning LUMA’s Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) budget that was approved by the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau (PREB) this week.  

Here is the truth and facts regarding LUMA’s commitment to fiscal responsibility and investment in our workforce:  

1. FACT: Because of the fiscal mistakes of PREPA, the previous operator before LUMA, which included a historic $10 billion bankruptcy, fiscal mismanagement, and operational failures, LUMA is required under our operating contract to stay on and within a budget.  

• FACT: LUMA is a regulated utility operator – all budgets are reviewed and approved under our operating contract, and we are obligated and committed to staying within budget.  

• FACT: LUMA recently submitted its FY25 budget, which highlights how the company will continue to focus on the most important priorities for the island – including reliability improvements, modernization and technology investments, customer service enhancements, emergency preparedness, and operational excellence. 

• FACT: The FY25 budget closely aligns with Fiscal Year 2024, and to be clear, does not increase customers’ rates at this time. As with all utilities in the world, LUMA prioritizes and balances the most critical needs of the electric system, including safety and reliability, with a commitment to customer affordability. 

• FACT: LUMA has and will continue to be focused on the critical maintenance required for the safe operation of the system – no critical maintenance is being deferred or delayed. LUMA stated this publicly in the hearings last week with its regulator, the PREB.  

• FACT: The statement that LUMA’s workforce costs more than contractors is completely false. In fact, contractors are up to 300% more expensive than seconded employees.  

• FACT: Seconded employees provide high level expertise, experience, and operational excellence that is critical to the rebuilding of the energy system. Further, the cost of contractors is significantly higher than seconded crews with seconded employees because there is a profit margin for contractors and seconded employees’ costs are based solely on the associated costs. There is no profit for LUMA or LUMA’s parent companies from deployment of seconded employees,  

• FACT: LUMA’s parent companies have invested in sending world class professionals recruited from 11 large utilities across United States to set up programs at LUMA and lead the grid transformation. This is critical for Puerto Rico given the poor training and decades of operational failures under PREPA.  

• FACT: As part of a commitment to build a local energy future workforce, LUMA has hired 300 recent graduates and 100 interns from 6 universities in Puerto Rico. LUMA also trains and upskills hundreds of employees and line workers through LUMA College technical training programs, including the first Department of Labor-certified electrical line worker apprenticeship program in Puerto Rico, and has established extensive training and retention for the next generation of professionals.  

1. Through our partnership with the largest and best trained utility union workforce in the country, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), LUMA trains and upskills employees and line workers through LUMA College technical training programs, including the first Department of Labor-certified electrical line worker apprenticeship program in Puerto Rico. 

1. FACT: So far, we have executed $1.1 billion dollars on the capital programs to rebuild the electric grid, which results in a $1.7 billion investment benefit to Puerto Rico’s economy. 

1. FACT:  All federally funded projects are executed based on the cost estimate provided to the federal government, which also is shared with several local and federal organizations. The cost of oversight of contractors is significantly higher than the oversight of seconded.  

The 4,000+ LUMA team are incredibly hard working and dedicated professionals. Puerto Rico is their home, and they are absolutely committed to building a better Puerto Rico. Respectfully, Mr. Colon must correct his public statements immediately.