This report summarizes Puerto Rico’s power grid recovery and rebuild efforts after Hurricane Maria, as well as current issues with the LUMA Energy contract. On September 19, 2017, Hurricane Maria, which had winds of 280 km per hour, was just off the coast of Puerto Rico. At 2 a.m. on September 20, 2017, Puerto Rico entered a total blackout. Four hours later, Maria made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane and tore a diagonal 160-km-long path from the island's southeast to its northwest, taking out much of the island's transmission. In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, all of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority's (PREPA) 1 1,570,000 electricity customers were without power, and many did not have power restored for months after.
As of 2020, the island relies primarily on large petroleum-fired power plants, which account for nearly half of the island's total 5,839 MW of generation capacity. Imported natural gas makes up 29% of generation, coal 19%, and renewables 2.5%. Nearly two-thirds of Puerto Rico's electricity generation capacity is located in the southern portion of the island, while the population is concentrated in the north, which makes the island dependent on its 2,400 miles of transmission and 30,000 miles of distribution lines. This dependency leaves the island especially exposed during storms such as Hurricane Maria. Despite significant recovery work, Puerto Rico still faces rolling blackouts three years later, and observers say that rebuilding the island's grid is key to reaching energy security.