We understand and share the frustration and impact caused by the island-wide power outage on Wednesday, April 16. That’s why we remain firmly committed to fulfilling our responsibility to rebuild a more reliable electrical system for Puerto Rico.
At this time, we continue to carry out the necessary repairs while conducting a thorough analysis to determine the root causes of the event. The truth is, in any modern electrical system, outages of this magnitude should not occur. Since LUMA began operations more than three years ago, we have identified the system’s fragility and the ongoing risk of large-scale events like the one experienced last week. These issues have affected Puerto Rico for decades and continue to remind us of the system’s instability.
Response Scope and Scale
As soon as the outage was detected, we immediately activated our Emergency Operations Center. Working around the clock and in close coordination with the generation companies, our teams began the complex process of restoring power. Thanks to this joint effort, approximately 99% of customers had their power restored within 38 hours, one of the fastest full-island restorations in Puerto Rico’s history.
What Caused the Outage?
While we continue investigating the full sequence of events, we would like to share our preliminary assessment. Current analysis suggests the outage originated with a fault in one of the transmission lines between Arecibo and Manatí. This fault triggered a cascading event that ultimately led to the island-wide outage. Although multiple protective devices, installed long before LUMA assumed control of the system, were in place to prevent this kind of widespread outage, they did not function as intended.
Next Steps
We will continue our commitment to full transparency with our customers about the causes of the event, the contributing factors, and the actions we are taking to reduce the risk of future large-scale outages. From day one, we’ve prioritized the critical issues that have plagued the system. We need to replace hundreds of transformers and control and protection equipment. Some of this equipment, ordered in March 2022, has started arriving and will arrive to come in the coming years. These efforts are part of our System Improvement Plan and are included in our proposals to FEMA for grid modernization.
The restoration efforts in response to this event resulted from an unprecedented collaboration between our team, the generation companies, and the Government of Puerto Rico. Together, we showed what can be achieved when everyone works as one, even during the most challenging moments.
We remain committed to overcoming the long-standing challenges we all face, and we will continue to work in that same spirit of collaboration to build the reliable energy future that everyone in Puerto Rico needs and deserves.
Juan Saca
President and Chief Executive Officer of LUMA
