As outlined in Annual Report: LUMA replaces more than 6,500 poles, installs 5,850 automation devices, over 133 million minutes in service interruptions prevented; resiliency and reliability increases
San Juan, Puerto Rico, Oct. 29, 2024 – LUMA filed its annual report for Fiscal Year 2024 (FY2024) on Monday with the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau, which documents the significant progress the company made between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024. As highlighted in the report, LUMA increased grid reliability and resiliency efforts, improved outage response, expanded its customer services and enhanced energy efficiency opportunities for its customers. The latest Annual Report also shows that LUMA completed these milestones while staying within its approved budget and continues to operate in a fiscally responsible manner on behalf of its 1.5 million customers.
“Our progress over the last fiscal year speaks for itself: we have replaced thousands of poles, installed thousands of automation devices and cleared thousands of miles of hazardous vegetation across Puerto Rico. This is real progress, and it is what our customers expect and deserve from their energy company. Looking ahead, we will continue to take the necessary action to improve the energy grid and services we proudly offer to our customers, as we continue to build a better energy future for Puerto Rico,” said Juan Saca, LUMA President and Chief Executive Officer
2024 Annual Report: Key Areas of Progress
LUMA’s FY2024 annual report highlights multiple areas of progress made by our LUMA team during the last fiscal year to build a safer, more reliable, more resilient and more customer focused energy grid that utilizes even more clean energy across Puerto Rico. Among the areas of progress include:
Increasing Reliability and Resiliency
- Reducing the Impact of Outages: Installed 5,850 distribution automation and protection devices to reduce the size and length of outages, preventing 133 million service interruption minutes for customers during FY2024.
- Building Storm Resiliency: Replaced more than 6,500 damaged utility poles with new poles able to withstand 160+ mph winds to strengthen reliability and system resiliency in severe weather.
- Clearing Hazardous Vegetation: Cleared hazardous vegetation from more than 1,500 miles of powerlines through LUMA’s daily vegetation management operations.
- Modernizing Substations: Replaced 14 transmission and distribution circuit breakers, installed wildlife mitigation equipment and replaced six substation battery banks to improve regional grid reliability through LUMA’s Substation Modernization Initiative.
Enhancing Customer Services
- Making Payments Easier for Customers: Launched a new payment option, allowing customers to complete payments using ATH Móvil at all LUMA customer service centers.
- Providing Timely Customer Service: Answered more than 2,350,000 calls from customers with an average wait time of just one minute and provided in-person support to more than 2,250,000 customers with an average wait time of less than ten minutes.
Advancing Clean Energy
- Expanding Renewable Energy Adoption: Helped to connect more than 44,200 customers to rooftop solar, representing more than 313 megawatts (MW) of clean, renewable energy.
- Increasing Battery Energy Storage: Launched the Customer Battery Energy Sharing initiative and enrolled more than 5,700 rooftop solar customers providing 38 MW of energy for the grid.
Improving Workforce and Public Safety
- Increasing Workforce Training: Completed more than 92,000 hours of workforce education through LUMA College for Technical Training and more than 36,000 hours of safety training, including First Aid and CPR training.
- Increasing Safety in Communities: Installed over 78,400 streetlights, making communities safer and more energy efficient as part of LUMA’s Community Streetlight Initiative.
Read the report to learn about LUMA’s progress throughout fiscal year 2024, https://energia.pr.gov/en/dockets/?docket=nepr-mi-2021-0004
LUMA’s Continued Efforts
While significant progress was made in FY2024, the over 4,000 men and women of LUMA know there is more work to do and remain committed to building on this progress through critical FEMA-funded projects, including LUMA’s Vegetation Safety and Reliability Initiative and Smart Meter Initiative. Together, these initiatives, along with LUMA’s daily modernization and maintenance work, will help build an energy future Puerto Rico can be proud of.
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About LUMA
LUMA is a Puerto Rican company that, since June 1, 2021, operates and manages the electric power transmission and distribution system in Puerto Rico. LUMA is a company driven by a mission to transform the electrical transmission and distribution system to provide all Puerto Ricans with the reliable, resilient, clean, and affordable electrical service they deserve. As a customer-centric company, LUMA’s entire workforce is focused on safely delivering an exceptional customer service experience to its 1.5 million customers.
