PREPA’s failure to provide between $190 million – $350 million in essential funding contributed to a 12% increase in outage duration and 2% increase in outage frequency
On behalf of its 1.5 million customers, LUMA renews calls for critical and urgent investments to stabilize system, improve reliability and minimize potential for island-wide blackouts
San Juan, Puerto Rico, July 22, 2025 – On Monday, LUMA filed its performance metrics report for the fourth quarter of Fiscal Year 2025 (Q4 FY 2025) with the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau (PREB). The Q4 metrics report clearly shows the significant and undeniable impact PREPA’s withholding of funds from LUMA’s critical operations accounts is having on two critical metrics: the length and number of service interruptions. As highlighted in the report, FY 2025 metrics for outage duration and outage frequency increased by 12% and 2% when compared to the previous 12 months.
“We want to be very clear – this report is further proof of the profound negative effects on electric customers due to years of PREPA’s underfunding of Puerto Rico’s energy system. While our entire LUMA team is determined to build a better energy future that Puerto Ricans expect and deserve, our efforts to address outages and improve the reliability of the grid are being severely limited by the continued lack of proper funding by PREPA. As we have mentioned time and again, no utility in the world can build a reliable electric system without sustained investments in critical infrastructure. We urge PREPA, and other bodies, to take action now and provide the required funds needed to build a better future for Puerto Rico,” said Juan Saca, LUMA President and Chief Executive Officer.
Consequences of PREPA’s Underfunding I: Declining Reliability Metrics
Over the last 12 months, customers experienced a 12% increase in the duration of outages and a 2% increase in the frequency of outages compared to the previous 12 months (FY 2024). During FY 2025, daily operating accounts funding critical projects were underfunded by an average of more than 70%. The lack of proper funding during this period of time is demonstrated in the graph below.
PREPA’s continued underfunding of key accounts, and the lack of funds to pay for everyday operations, has resulted in LUMA shifting critical resources away from areas critical to improving reliability. For example, starting in January of this year, LUMA has been forced to shift 25% of its operational workforce, whose responsibility is to support outage response, system maintenance and customer complaints. These workers were assigned to FEMA-funded projects, such as the Smart Meter Initiative, streetlight upgrades, and pole replacements. While important, these initiatives do not improve the stability and reliability of the electric system.
LUMA Reiterates Call for New Investments & Stable Funding
The Q4 FY 2025 performance metrics report and the specific declines in the frequency and duration of reliability are further proof of the need for sustained and additional investment in the energy grid. To address this ongoing challenge, LUMA submitted earlier this month a comprehensive investment plan to the PREB which, if approved, would represent the largest investment for the energy system in decades. The new investments would fund significant actions to strengthen system reliability and resiliency. LUMA’s proposed investment plan would result in a reduction in outages, and lead to tens of millions of fewer customer interruption minutes prevented by 2028. Without these critical investments, coupled with PREPA’s continued underfunding of LUMA’s operations, LUMA estimates that the average customer could experience an estimated seven outages per year, with an average duration as high as 20 hours.
Metrics Report: Areas of Progress
Despite confronting an array of challenges, LUMA continues to make progress across key priorities.
Progress made in Q4 FY 2025 Compared to Q4 FY 2024:
–Mitigating Hazards: Increased miles of vegetation maintenance completed by 12%.
–Committing to Diligence: Increased distribution line inspections by 93%, transmission line inspections by 59%, and substation inspections by 81%.
–Reinforcing Safety: Reduced the OSHA Severity Rate, or average number of days lost per incident, by 59%, and the OSHA DART Rate, or average number of days away, restricted or transferred, by 20%.
–Providing Faster Customer Service: Reduced in-person wait times under 8 minutes and maintained an average speed to answer calls of less than two minutes.
–Accelerating Renewable Energy: Connected over 9,300 rooftop solar customers, adding 74 megawatts of clean, renewable energy to the grid.
Progress made to date:
-Installed over 10,300 grid automation devices on critical infrastructure to make outage impacts smaller and shorter, preventing more than 99 million customer interruption minutes over the last 12 months.
-Replaced more than 30,400 utility poles to strengthen the backbone of the transmission and distribution system.
-Started or completed 77 substation upgrade or reconstruction projects to improve service reliability and resiliency.
-Cleared hazardous vegetation from over 6,300 miles of powerlines, improving grid reliability.
-Installed over 178,000 streetlights to make communities safer and more energy efficient.
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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, cleaner, and affordable electrical service they deserve. As a customer-centric company, LUMA’s entire workforce of over 4,500 employees is focused on safely delivering an exceptional customer service experience to its 1.5 million customers.
