Puerto Rico Outage Leaves More Than 1.2 Million Without Power

On social media, Luma said the cause of the outage was under investigation, and preliminary findings suggested a fault with an underground line. The estimate for up to two days for full restoration depends on conditions permitting, Luma said.

The company said it would provide updates every two hours. In an 11 a.m. post, it said service was restored for the San Juan Municipal Hospital, while Culebra, a small separate island that is part of Puerto Rico, had service due to generators from Genera, which manages the U.S. Commonwealth’s power plants.

Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said there was already work being done to restore service at the San Juan and Palo Seco plants and the government was demanding solutions from Luma as well as Genera. 

Puerto Rico’s main airport, Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, said it was operating normally thanks to power generators.

Power outages have been a recurrent problem on Puerto Rico and have worsened since Hurricane Maria, a deadly 2017 storm that left about 3,000 dead and devastated homes, businesses and infrastructure on the island, including damaging or destroying about 80% of the power grid.

Many in Puerto Rico were glad when Luma took over the grid in 2021 after years of poor service from a state-run utility. But lengthy power outages and rate increases since then have angered Puerto Ricans. Supporters of the company have said it had to tackle long-neglected infrastructure that has been repeatedly damaged by storms. Luma has said it has also had difficulties with the labor force on the island.

Puerto Rico’s high electricity prices have prompted many residents to look at generators or solar systems as alternatives.

Jennifer Calfas contributed to this article.