ATCO and QUANTA Services are more committed than ever to Puerto Rico
San Juan, Puerto Rico, June 1, 2023 – Today marks two years since LUMA assumed operation of Puerto Rico’s electric transmission and distribution system. Over the past 24 months, the more than 3,000 men and women of LUMA have made historic progress to build a next-generation energy grid that’s more reliable and more resilient for its 1.5 million customers across the island.
“In just two years, despite many inherited challenges, the over 3,000 men and women of LUMA have made real, measurable progress and notable improvements for our communities thanks to the professionalism and dedication of our highly skilled and highly trained workforce,” said Wayne Stensby, LUMA President and CEO. “We are proud of the historic progress we’ve made to date, and even more excited about the brighter energy future we are building together with our customers, government and private sector partners and contractors.”
“We are proud to celebrate two years of LUMA’s progress transforming and modernizing the long-beleaguered electric system, inherited from the past operator. Let us be clear, we are more determined than ever to build on this incredible progress that our partnership with LUMA has fostered, and we will continue to do all we can to empower the fantastic leadership team and the over 3,000 men and women of LUMA whose hard work and sacrifices have made this progress possible. By working together over the coming years, we can and will build a better energy future for Puerto Rico,” said ATCO Ltd. Chair and CEO Nancy Southern and Quanta Services President and CEO Duke Austin in a joint statement.
Historic Progress Across Multiple Metrics
Over the last two years, LUMA has successfully done more to repair, rebuild and strengthen the electric grid than all the work done over the previous decade under the prior operator. LUMA has made significant improvements in overall reliability, grid resiliency, customer service and the adoption of renewable energy while also setting new and higher training standards for our utility workforce.
Among the progress made over the last two years, LUMA has:
- Improved Reliability: Over the past two years, service interruption frequency has reduced by approximately 35%, and over the last year, service interruption duration has reduced by approximately 25%.
- Strengthened Essential Infrastructure: Replaced 5,000+ damaged utility poles with new poles to strengthen reliability and system resilience.
- Cleared Hazardous Vegetation: Cleared overgrown, hazardous vegetation from the areas around a record 1,400 miles of transmission and distribution lines across the island.
- Installed Outage Reduction Technology: Added 1,400+ distribution and automation devices to faster identify and reduce the impact of service interruptions.
- Established New Higher Standard for Workforce Training: Trained more than 3,000 workers through programs and training courses at LUMA College for Technical Training.
- Empowered Growth of Renewable Energy: Helped connect over 54,000 customers to rooftop solar, representing more than 330 megawatts in clean energy, the most in Puerto Rico’s history.
- Advanced a Historic Number of FEMA projects: Initiated 353 projects to FEMA totaling $10+ billion, the largest investment made by the federal government in Puerto Rico.
- Modernized Substations: Started or planned 11 substation upgrade projects in 2023, with $101 million in already-approved federal funds for LUMA’s Substation Modernization Initiative.
- Increased Community Lighting: Installedover 36,000 streetlights making communities safer and more energy efficient as part of LUMA’s $1 billion Community Streetlight Initiative.
- Supported Additional Generation Capacity: Supported the connection of the first FEMA-funded, land-based generators, with approximately 150 megawatts of generation now commissioned, and an additional 200 megawatts expected in the coming months.
- Enhanced Hurricane Response: Developed an Emergency Response Plan (ERP) that prioritizes critical infrastructure and vulnerable customers during response and restoration, resulting in 90% of customers’ power restored within 12 days after Hurricane Fiona.
- Advanced New Transparency Resources: Launched multiple online resources to better inform customers, such as the LUMA Progress website, the first ever power outage estimator, and a real-time generation and system data report.
- Improved Customer Service: In the last year, we have reduced the average customer call wait time to less than two minutes and the average wait time at customer service centers to eight minutes or less.
- Supported Our Customers’ Financial Needs: Provided more than $97 million in critical financial assistance to customers in need
In addition to rebuilding and repairing a neglected and decades-old electric system and responding to over $3 billion in damages from Hurricane Fiona, LUMA remains focused on making long-term investments to build a cleaner and stronger energy system for its customers and generations to come.
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 grid they deserve. As a customer-centric company, LUMA’s entire workforce of more than 3,000 employees is focused on safely delivering an exceptional customer service experience to its 1.5 million customers.
