Private power companies in Puerto Rico are under scrutiny as officials demand fewer outages

abcnews.go.com:

Two private power companies in Puerto Rico have come under scrutiny while presenting plans to stabilize the island's crumbling electric grid as officials demanded immediate action to minimize chronic power outages

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Two private power companies came under scrutiny Wednesday while they presented plans to stabilize Puerto Rico’s crumbling electric grid as officials demanded immediate action to minimize chronic power outages.

The presentations by Genera PR, which operates the generation of power in the U.S. territory, and Luma Energy, which handles transmission and distribution, lasted more than five hours as they answered questions by Puerto Rico’s Energy Bureau and others.

The bureau had ordered both companies in June to produce “aggressive” plans to improve the island’s electric system, which was razed by Hurricane Maria in 2017 but was already failing prior to the Category 4 storm given a lack of maintenance and investment under Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority.

“We continue to see a high rate of critical failures,” said Daniel Haughton, Luma’s planning director.

The ongoing outages come as crews make permanent repairs to the grid following Hurricane Maria, which caused an estimated $9.7 billion in damage to the system’s transmission and distribution.

Hurricane Fiona also battered the grid in 2022, sparking an island-wide blackout, and Tropical Storm Ernesto caused further damage in mid-August.

“We need to get it done soonest,” Jorge Camacho, engineer and advisor to Puerto Rico’s Energy Bureau, said of the improvement plan. “What is the delay?”

Luma says it has taken steps to improve the grid including replacing more than 17,000 utility poles and clearing vegetation from more than 4,800 miles