SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — By Friday, authorities announced that power had been restored to over 98% of customers following an island-wide blackout in Puerto Rico earlier in the week.
Luma Energy, the company responsible for the island’s power transmission and distribution, reported that over 1.45 million customers had their electricity restored in less than 48 hours after the outage began.
However, Luma cautioned that “some customers may continue to face temporary outages due to limited generation.”
Governor Jenniffer González expressed that all those initially impacted by the blackout had their power restored. Yet, the remaining 21,400 customers experiencing power shortages on Friday were confronted with issues unrelated to the outage.
González declared, “Obviously, Luma still has work to do. It is a shame for our people… that we have such an insufficient, mediocre system.”
Temporary power outages in Puerto Rico affect several thousand customers weekly for various reasons.
González also highlighted that over 98% of the island’s population had their water supply restored. “Thank God, we have overcome a significant crisis this week,” she remarked.
The blackout struck on Wednesday afternoon due to a transmission line failure, which subsequently triggered protective shutdowns of generators across Puerto Rico, impacting over 400,000 customers’ water supply at that time.
The root cause of the transmission line failure remains unclear, but officials are probing whether faulty breakers or encroaching vegetation might be responsible.
González anticipates receiving a preliminary investigative report within the coming days.
This incident marks the second significant blackout to hit Puerto Rico in under four months, with the previous occurrence happening on New Year’s Eve.