Much of Puerto Rico without power heading into new year due to ‘critical fault,’ island’s governor says

ORLANDO, Fla. – A large portion of Puerto Rico is without power and could be in the dark for 24 to 48 hours, according to power company LUMA and the island’s governor.

LUMA, a private company, said in a statement on X that the outage occurred at around 5:30 a.m., and preliminary findings point to a fault on an underground line.

LUMA is working to restore power in phases, but it could take up to two days to fully restore power to the some 1.3 million customers.

However, Reuters and CBS are reporting that Genera, Puerto Rico’s primary energy generator, was also affected by the fault, bringing down plants belonging to Genera and other private electricity generators.

Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said in a statement that work was underway to restore service to San Juan and Palo Seco plants, and the government was “in communication” with both companies.

“We are demanding answers and solutions from both LUMA and Genera, who must expedite the restart of the generating units outside the fault area and keep the people duly informed about the measures they are taking to restore service throughout the Island,” Pierluisi said.

Power outages are a constant problem on the island. An outage back in September left tens of thousands without power because of generation issues.

Genera and LUMA pointed fingers at each other for the energy issues.

The U.S. territory’s power grid is still needing permanent repairs after it was razed by Hurricane Maria in 2017.

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