IN RELIABILITY, CLEAN ENERGY, GRID RESILENCY, CUSTOMER SERVICE, EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS AND OTHER KEY AREAS.  

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO – Yesterday, LUMA filed its third quarter report with the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau (PREB) that highlighted significant areas of progress, system improvements and detailed the company’s continuing advances in critical areas of utility operations between January and March of fiscal year 2024. In the report, LUMA documents specific areas of progress essential to transforming the electrical grid, including the priorities of reliability, clean energy, grid resiliency, customer service, and emergency preparedness.  

“During the 3^rd quarter of 2024, we continue to make incredible progress toward our shared goal of building a modern utility for all our customers, while also remaining fiscally responsible and operating within our approved budget,” said Juan Saca, LUMA President and Chief Executive Officer. “Looking ahead, we are launching two new major projects – the Vegetation Safety and Reliability Initiative and the Meter Modernization Initiative – that will prove vital to reducing future outages, improving reliability, and providing more information and better customer service. While we can all be proud of what we have accomplished to date, we truly believe the best is yet to come.  

LUMA’s 3^rd Quarter Report: Key Areas of Progress 

LUMA’s 3^rd quarter report highlighted broad areas of progress that are vital to building a more reliable, more resilient, safer, more customer-focused, and cleaner energy system. Among the areas of progress include: 

• Enhancing Reliability: Installed over 450 automatic devices that use innovative technology to reduce the size and impact of outages, preventing 30 million service interruption minutes for customers during the third quarter. 

• Increasing Resiliency: Replaced more than 1,000 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 overgrown, hazardous vegetation from over 400 miles of priority transmission and distribution powerlines and launched the FEMA-funded Vegetation Safety and Reliability Initiative to strategically clear vegetation from over 16,000 miles over the next three years to reduce outages by up to 45% once complete. 
• Modernizing Substations: Replaced six transmission and five distribution circuit breakers and two remote terminal units to improve regional reliability through LUMA’s Substation Modernization Initiative. 

• Increasing Lights in Communities: Installed over 24,000 streetlights, making communities safer and more energy efficient as part of LUMA’s $1 billion Community Streetlight Initiative. 

• Expanding Renewable Energy: Helped connect over 7,800 customers to rooftop solar, representing more than 56 megawatts of clean energy, and executed three large generator interconnection agreements to add 150 MW of new energy storage resources to the grid.

• Advancing Federally Funded FEMA projects: Submitted 48 detailed scopes of work projects (DSOWs) to FEMA representing an estimated $545 million, adding to the current historic federal investment in Puerto Rico. 

• Providing Responsive Customer Service: Launched SMS text alerts that provide customers with restoration updates on reported service interruptions, as well as transaction confirmations when customers make bill payments through LUMA’s automated phone system to further increase transparency and customer assistance. 

• Increasing Workforce and Emergency Training: Completed over 10,000 hours of employee health and safety training and over 15,000 hours of field training through LUMA College for Technical Training. 

• Promoting Energy Efficiency: Launched new energy efficiency programs for residential customers that included rebates for efficient appliances and shipped over 8,200 free energy efficiency kits to help customers protect home appliances and save energy and money. 

• Building a Next-Generation Energy Grid: Launched the FEMA-funded Smart Meter Initiative to install 1.5 million electric meters across Puerto Rico that will help restore service more quickly and provide enhanced customer features once complete.  

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.