Over 1.3 million customers have power in Puerto Rico; LUMA remains dedicated to restoring the remaining 8% of customers without power, focusing efforts on hardest hit areas in central and eastern Puerto Rico 

San Juan, Puerto Rico, Aug. 17, 2024 – LUMA announced today that it has restored electric service to over 623,000 customers who had lost power due to Tropical Storm Ernesto. Now, more than 90% of all customers are back in service, surpassing the company’s global restoration target by one day. As of 5:00 am on Saturday, over 1.3 million customers across Puerto Rico have power, and LUMA continues to make progress in repairing the system and restoring service to the remaining 110,000 customers in the most heavily impacted areas of central and eastern Puerto Rico. In the 72 hours following the storm, LUMA successfully restored power to 92% of customers who had been affected, achieving this milestone in under four days. 

“Our LUMA crews worked tirelessly, in often difficult conditions, to achieve our global ETR target ahead of schedule. Despite meeting this goal, our crews remain focused on restoring power to the remaining customers without service in Caguas, Carolina, Mayaguez and Ponce regions that were most impacted by Tropical Storm Ernesto. We will work around the clock and will not stop until every one of our customers has power. Throughout this ongoing restoration phase, we want to express our deep thanks to our local and federal partners, our municipal partners, and our customers for their support and commitment to Puerto Rico,” said Juan Saca, LUMA President and CEO.  

We encourage customers to call in if they experience any service interruptions as we continue to restore service to the remaining 10%.   

Regional Estimated Timeframes for Restoration  

LUMA recently completed over 1500 ground assessments and helicopter patrols to determine the full extent of the damage to the system. Based on these ground and aerial inspections, LUMA released estimated time of restoration (ETR) 90% of customers impacted in each service region, which are shown in the below chart. Given the varying impact from Tropical Storm Ernesto, it’s important to remember that the central and eastern areas may experience variations in estimated restoration times. 

Service Region	Estimated Timing for 90% Restoration	% Restored
Arecibo	Saturday, August 17th – Estimated Time of Restoration met	95%
Bayamón	Friday, August 16th – Estimated Time of Restoration met	98%
Caguas	Sunday, August 18th – Estimated Time of Restoration achieved early	92%
Carolina	Monday, August 19th	64%
Mayagüez	Sunday, August 18th – Estimated time of Restoration achieved early	92%
Ponce	Friday, August 16th – Estimated Time of Restoration met	93%
San Juan	Monday, August 19th – Estimated Time of Restoration achieved early	98%

Data as of 0500 am on Saturday, Aug. 17 

Coordination and Communications with Mayors  

As part of LUMA’s commitment to communicating and coordinating preparation and restoration efforts before, during, and after the storm, the company has been actively engaging with mayors and municipal leaders daily as they are vital to supporting LUMA crews working to restore power to customers. These outreach efforts include daily regional meetings with mayors and members of their teams and over 951direct contacts with municipalities since activating its emergency response on Tuesday. 

Restoration and Response Efforts Underway 

LUMA continues to follow the restoration process in accordance with its Emergency Response Plan, which, as of 05:00 a.m. on Saturday, includes: 

• Dispatching damage assessment and restoration crews to respond to outages – with ~800 aerial and ground assessments completed identifying the damages in the San Juan and Caguas regions and the islands of Vieques and Culebra, the areas that sustained the most damage, which includes broken poles, downed powerlines, damaged insulators, other hardware and vegetation impacts. 
• Utilizing emergency response resources including ground fleet vehicles and field employees to assess and repair damages – over 1,700 field workers have been deployed. 
• Conducting restoration work in a coordinated manner and under high standards of compliance with safety, prioritizing critical services including health, safety, transportation and communications facilities – assessments identified 66 critical facilities that will be prioritized for restoration, of which 52 have had power restored. 
• Continuing repairs and restoring power to all affected customers as quickly and safely as possible when generation is available, prioritizing the repairs that impact the largest groups of customers first – 54 transmission line segments have been re-energized and cleared of vegetation to support restoration efforts. Additionally, more than 300 distribution feeders have been re-energized. 
• Providing customers with timely updates and sharing estimated restoration times (ETRs) across official LUMA channels – LUMA has completed 842 contacts with mayors since activating its emergency response, continues to share updates with customers, host daily regional meetings with mayors, and today announced the regional estimated restoration times for 90% customers affected by Tropical Storm Ernesto. 

Keeping Customers Up to Date 

Regular updates will continue to be available through the news media, local radio, and the following LUMA customer resources: 

• LUMA website: lumapr.com  
• Twitter: twitter.com/lumaenergypr  
• Facebook: facebook.com/lumapuertorico  
• Instagram: instagram.com/lumapuertorico 
• LUMA Outage Map: miluma.lumapr.com/outages/outageMap  
• Mi LUMA App: miluma.lumapr.com  

As a reminder, national or local news media requests must be sent to [email protected].  

Urgent Public Safety Message: LUMA urges the public to put their safety first. Call LUMA immediately at 1-844-888-5862 (LUMA) to report any downed lines or electrical emergencies that require immediate attention. Remember to stay away from any low-hanging or downed power lines.    

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.