A look at why an eclipse on the island hit Puerto Rico and what caused it

San Juan, Puerto Rico (AP)-A blackout of the island hit Puerto Rico this week, leaving 1.4 million customers without power and more than 400,000 without water. It was the second massive interruption that hit Puerto Rico since New Year’s Eve, when an eclipse left 90% of customers without power. Crews struggled to restore power on Thursday as a growing number of Puerto Ricans called on the governor to cancel the contracts of two companies overseeing the generation, transfer and distribution of power to the US area of ​​3.2 million inhabitants. At 12:38 a.m. Wednesday, massive generating plants on Puerto Rico began closing after a transmission line failed. Refrigerators stopped buzzing, air conditioners became quiet and traffic lights got dark. People began to realize the extent of the break when they began to mention friends and family who live on the other side of the island who say they were also without power. Hundreds of businesses have closed, including the largest mall in the Caribbean. Hospitals and most important international airport started working on generators, while dozens of passengers use a fast transit system that serves the capital, San Juan, forced to step on a transition to the train’s rails to evacuate. Incredibly, Puerto Ricans began to claim answers from the government while the crew scurried to find out what had happened. “When are we going to do something?” Reggaeton SuperStar Bad Bunny wrote on X and reflected people’s collective anger. Anger grew when people started photos of those affected by the eclipse, including one of a woman who plugged a small machine into the outlet of a grocery store to give herself medical treatment for a lung condition. The authorities are still investigating the causes of the eclipse. One possibility is that overgrown vegetation may have affected the network and caused a transmission line to fail, officials said. Luma Energy, the company responsible for supervising the transfer and distribution of power in Puerto Rico, is supposed to regularly do air patrols over certain lines to ensure that they remain free from vegetation. Luma engineer Pedro Meléndez said at a news conference on Thursday that he did not immediately have details left when the company last did an air patrol, but added that it appears with the frequency determined in his contract. Josué Colón, the energy of the island and former executive director of Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority, said Luma should also explain why all the generators closed after there was a failure in the transmission system when only one was supposed to go into protective mode. It is likely to take weeks to find an exact reason for the eclipse, although Governor Jenniffer González said on Thursday that she would have a very preliminary report within three days. The Electric Power Authority of Puerto Rico has not provided the maintenance and investment it needed for decades. It started crumbling over the years, and then on September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria hit the US area as a powerful category 4 storm. It cut power lines, overcooked transmission towers and broke thin wood lights, leaving some people for almost a year without power. In the following months, the crew focused on emergency repairs. It was only a few years after the hurricane that the actual reconstruction began. In June 2021, the Electric Power Authority Luma contracted for struggling to restructure its debt of more than $ 9 billion, with negotiations still continuing. In January 2023, the General Genera Proof Authority contracted to oversee the arousal of power on the island as part of another public-private partnership. Puerto Rico has been plagued by chronic power cuts since Mary, with photos and videos of transmission lines increasingly common. González said that providing consistent energy is a priority and distanced herself from renewable energy goals set by the previous governor. Her administration recently expanded the activities of Puerto Rico’s lonely coal -powered plant. Meanwhile, with poverty of more than 40%, many on the island cannot afford solar panels or generators. About 117,000 houses and businesses on the island have solar roofs. Petroleum-powered power stations provide 62% of Puerto Rico’s power, natural gas 24%, coal 8% and renewable energy, according to the US Energy Information Administration. A growing number of Puerto Ricans demanded that Governor cancel Luma’s contract, and she promised to do so. “People have to be fed up with that we have such a mediocre system. If it’s not the transfer, it’s the generation,” González said. “There will of course be consequences.” However, she noted that cancellation of the contract and finding a new business is taking time. Officials also previously warned that there would be not sufficient generation as the demand for the peaks. Given the concern, González said the government wants to contract a company that can deliver more than 800 megawatts energy in the coming months. The request-for-preliminary process started on March 25 and ends this month. Sixty companies have submitted proposals. ____ Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america first published: 17 Apr 2025, 09:00 IST