San Juan, Puerto Rico, June 11, 2021 — LUMA personnel successfully controlled the power outage caused by a fire at the Monacillo substation that started yesterday at 6:11 PM. It was possible to stabilize the system at 1:30 AM today (Friday) and restore the service to most of the affected customers.
At 8:30 AM today, there were about 36,000 customers without electric power service in various sectors of the island. LUMA personnel are installing a mobile substation to replace the substation affected by the fire and restore service to all customers this afternoon.
“Our team in Monacillo managed to stabilize the system almost entirely at about 1:30 AM. At that point, most of our customers throughout Puerto Rico already had service,” explained Wayne Stensby, president and CEO of LUMA at a press conference. “The crews have continued to work all night. A mobile substation was identified and will be used to replace the transformer that broke down last night in Monacillo. Currently, our teams are working with that portable substation with which we hope to be able to restore service to customers who are served directly by that transformer,” Stensby added about the incident that affected some 900,000 LUMA customers.
“Crews were dispatched to patrol lines and identify possible breakdowns in feeders and transmission lines. At this time, we have not yet identified the fault that caused the breakdown. We continue with our work of restoring the system. We anticipate that the system will be operating in its entirety by 6:00 PM today,” he said. Regarding the fire, Stensby indicated that LUMA is cooperating with the relevant agencies to identify the cause.
Stensby stressed that the event that took place yesterday tested the ability of the LUMA team to operate the island’s electrical system. “Last night’s events speak for themselves. We were able
to move quickly with our teams. We managed a substantial amount of work safely, so I can say we’re ready. We have a great team at LUMA. Right now, we have about 1,200 employees on the
street working around all of Puerto Rico,” said Stensby
