By The Star Staff
Energy insufficiency will continue through 2025 and customers should brace themselves for power outages, according to the annual Energy Resource Sufficiency Report submitted to the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau by LUMA Energy.
The report highlights the main challenges that impact the reliability of Puerto Rico’s electrical system due to the lack of reliable generation. Although LUMA does not control, own or manage any of the generation facilities in Puerto Rico, the company said that as operator of the transmission and distribution system, its energy experts conduct an annual assessment of the stability, reliability and resilience of the island’s generation capacity and ability to meet energy demand.
“Without reliable generation, there is no reliable energy in Puerto Rico,” LUMA President & CEO Juan Saca said. “Like the transmission and distribution system, the island’s generation assets have suffered decades of neglect. This has resulted in a significant energy generation shortfall that causes service interruptions for customers. Our Energy Resource Sufficiency Report is an important tool to analyze and assess the current state of the generation system. It also allows us to evaluate the impact on service reliability and define the measures that must be taken to provide more reliable electric service to the people of Puerto Rico every day.”
According to the 2024 report, LUMA experts determined that customers could experience up to 154 hours of generation-related service interruptions, or load shedding, over an estimated 36 days between July 2024 and June 2025 due to insufficient generation. In comparison, between July 2023 and June 2024, customers experienced a total of 33 load-shedding events due to inadequate generation. That resulted in 78 hours of service interruptions.
Generation facilities in Puerto Rico are operated by Genera PR, independent power producers (IPPs), and the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA). While facilities operated by IPPs have relatively high availability, PREPA plants, which represent 76.5% of the available reliable capacity of thermal power plants in Puerto Rico, continue to suffer from a history of abandonment. This negatively impacts energy supply and system reliability, the company said.
On average, only 53% of total generation is expected to be available, as many power plants are out of service due to various factors. These include scheduled interruptions for maintenance and those that occur due to breakdowns or damage to equipment. The report also said most generation facilities in Puerto Rico are much more unreliable than power plants in other parts of the world, due to a legacy of lack of proper maintenance. Because of this, they are not often available to operate when there is high energy demand. Some generation units are so deteriorated by age and lack of investment that they can only supply a fraction of their available capacity.a
Comments