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Puerto Rico was plunged into darkness early Tuesday morning by a blackout that nearly affected the entire island.
The cause of the blackout is under investigation, but preliminary findings pointed to a fault in an underground line, according to Luma Energy, the island’s main power distributor. Full restoration of service could take between 24 and 48 hours, said the company in X.
Only 13 percent of the island’s 1.4 million customers had power around 10:00 AST (14:00 GMT), according to the New York Times.
An hour later, power had been restored to some areas, as well as to the San Juan municipal hospital, Luma said.
The New Year’s Eve blackout prompted new calls from elected officials and residents to address ongoing power issues in the unincorporated U.S. territory, which have persisted since Hurricane Maria in 2017.
The island cannot continue to support an energy system that fails its citizens so frequently, Jenniffer González-Colón, current representative of the United States Congress from Puerto Rico and incoming governor of Puerto Rico, wrote in X.
The blackouts continue to affect Puerto Rico’s economy and quality of life, he said.
On Facebook, the current governor, Pedro Pierluisi, demanded answers and solutions from the two main electricity companies, Luma and Genera.
Hundreds of thousands of residents have been affected by power outages at once this year. A blackout in June left about 350,000 customers without power due to rising temperatures, and more than 700,000 customers were left without power after Hurricane Ernesto in August.
Waking up to another day without power, Puerto Ricans expressed their frustration to the American media.
“They are part of my everyday life,” Enid Núñez, 49, told the Associated Press of the blackouts.
Puerto Rico’s power grid was under strain even before Hurricane Maria devastated the island. U.S. government funding helped shore up the grid, facilitate recovery projects from other natural disasters, and make other major infrastructure improvements.
But implementation has been incomplete due to a variety of factors, such as problems starting construction and requirements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to authorize the use of some of the funds, according to a February 2024 report. report from the US Government Accountability Office.
“Inexcusably, the power grid has yet to recover from the damage caused by Hurricane Maria,” Mark Levine, president of New York City’s Manhattan borough, wrote in X.
New York City is home to the largest Puerto Rican community in the continental United States.
“This is 3.5 million American citizens,” he wrote. “We owe them much more.”
