After dark, the capital San Juan remained largely shrouded in darkness. The outage would be linked to an overload on the external substation of a high-voltage cable in the south which “resulted in a cascading effect” throughout Puerto Rico, José Pérez, business director, explained to AFP on Tuesday. external electricity supplier LUMA.
According to him, it will take a total of “around 48 hours for a return to normal”. “We have started to restore service, several places in the metropolitan area (of San Juan) have power again, particularly the medical center area and the hospitals there,” he said.
Power has also returned to the region of the La Plata aqueduct, which supplies Puerto Rico with drinking water, he assured.
The outage began at 5:30 a.m. (09:30 GMT) on the island of around three million inhabitants, according to LUMA. (23:00 GMT), nearly 23% of its customers received electricity again in total, according to the company's website. In the San Juan region, this rate was 41%.
“No American should be forced to start the new year in the dark. I share the frustration of many Puerto Ricans facing another widespread power outage on the island. They deserve better,” commented on US Energy Minister Jennifer Granholm.
The United States government is “following the outage closely” and stands “ready to assist” the Puerto Rican authorities, she added.
Located east of Cuba and west of Guadeloupe, the island is home to a total of 3.2 million inhabitants who, due to their special status, hold American nationality but cannot, for example, participate in elections only if they are on United States soil.
“We have been facing this problem for a while and rumors have been circulating in recent months saying that what happened today could happen,” Ismael Pérez, a resident of Dorado, in the west, told AFP. from San Juan.
“They say we will be without electricity for almost three days or more,” he added ruefully at a gas station, pointing out the responsibility of current energy suppliers.
Same tone from the island's governor, Pedro Pierluisi, who says he was in contact throughout the day with President Joe Biden and his Minister of Energy.
“We are asking for answers and solutions, both from LUMA and Genera,” the other electricity supplier, he said on X. “It is a long and arduous process that requires local collaboration and federal”.
Almost all production sites were shut down mid-morning but production gradually resumed during the day, according to the Genera website, which allows real-time monitoring.
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