the consortium LUMA Energy and the Electric Power Authority (AEE) reported that more than one million customers already have electricity service, without specifying the exact figure.
“Electric service was restored for more than 1 million customers as of 4:00 am”indicated the company in its most recent report, which corresponds to 5:30 a.m.
In a joint communication, both entities indicated that the work to reactivate the island’s entire energy system will continue today.
However, they recognized what followers of The new day have reported for the past few hours: once they recover electrical service, they lose it again in a matter of hours or minutes.
“While power has been restored to portions of the island, some areas may experience a temporary loss of power for brief periods of time as we work to balance generation and stabilize the power grid.”they explained.
We urge customers to conserve their energy usage throughout Saturday to help reduce energy demand and risk to the system.
For his part, Governor Pedro Pierluisi -who continues to travel through Spain- wrote on his Twitter account that the figure reported to him by LUMA Energy and PREPA this morning was 1,045,089 subscribers with electricity service or the equivalent of 71.2% of customers at island level.
“The most up-to-date information I have received is that some 1,045,089 customers already have electricity, since Unit 2 of Aguirre entered, and Ecoelectrica is currently being energized, which will add more megawatts to the network. Right now, 71.2% is energized”the executive tweeted.
The general blackout that crosses Puerto Rico since Wednesday night occurred after a breakdown and fire at the Costa Sur plant. The cause is still under investigation.
During the press conference held yesterday morning, Colón explained that the Costa Sur and Ecoelectrica power plants in Peñuelas are still out of service and that they are waiting for some work to be completed in the transmission and distribution area, in charge of from LUMA Energyto “begin unit startup and place them into service”.
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The images show the state of the switch area of the Costa Sur plant after the fire that caused the general blackout around 8:30 pm on April 6, 2022. (Jorge A. Ramirez Portela)
The fire destroyed part of the switches and caused the incident that led to the paralysis of electricity generation, not only at the Costa Sur plant, but at other stations around the island. (Jorge A. Ramirez Portela)
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The staff of the Fire Department Bureau finally controlled the fire at the plant around 10:30 p.m. on April 6, 2022. (Jorge A. Ramirez Portela)
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Today, Thursday, April 7, 2022, personnel from the Police Bureau, the Electric Power Authority and the LUMA Energy conglomerate inspected the area to determine what caused the fire. (Jorge A. Ramirez Portela)
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LUMA Energy CEO Wayne Stensby said the fire investigation could take several weeks. (Jorge A. Ramirez Portela)
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Engineer Josué Colón (wearing a blue shirt), executive director of PREPA, indicated at a press conference from the Costa Sur power plant that, at the moment, they do not have a concrete estimate of how long it would take for PREPA and LUMA to restore electricity service. electric power throughout Puerto Rico. (Jorge A. Ramirez Portela)
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Colón, like Stensby, stressed that, at the moment, they do not know what caused the fire that led to the emergency situation on the island. (Jorge A. Ramirez Portela)
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Stensby, for his part, explained that LUMA Energy is in a process of “complete restoration” of the electrical grid, while lamenting the impact it has had on Puerto Ricans. (Jorge A. Ramirez Portela)
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PREPA personnel go to the switch area at the Costa Sur plant to continue with the repair work to restore service. (Jorge A. Ramirez Portela)
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Stensby indicated that “we will carry out an investigation into the causes. The investigation has just begun and we will share the results so that we can prevent a blackout like this from happening again.” (Jorge A. Ramirez Portela)
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For his part, engineer Gadiel Hernández, from LUMA Energy, indicated that there was a possibility that the switch that caught fire had exceeded its useful life. (Jorge A. Ramirez Portela)
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“I have to look for the file to see, but it must probably be a breaker with over 40 years of service and its useful life of about 30 years must already have expired,” Hernández explained. (Jorge A. Ramirez Portela)
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Stensby added that LUMA and PREPA personnel worked through the night to restore the affected generation units, high-voltage transmission lines and substations, in order to bring electricity to homes, businesses and industries. (Jorge A. Ramirez Portela)
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Preliminarily, the executive argued that the blackout was caused by a fault in a switch in unit number five of the plant. After the fire occurred, the protection system of the electrical network was activated and the other generation plants were turned off. (Jorge A. Ramirez Portela)
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Despite the seriousness of the failure, Stensby stressed that the conglomerate’s expectation is that “a large number of customers recover service this afternoon,” but insisted that he cannot estimate when the situation will return to normal. (Jorge A. Ramirez Portela)
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At the moment, over 400,000 subscribers remain without electricity service, and several municipalities also do not have drinking water service due to the lack of energy in the pumping plants. (Jorge A. Ramirez Portela)
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Costa Sur and EcoEléctrica (private) are two of the largest plants in Puerto Rico.
