By The Star Staff
A U.S. House Natural Resources subcommittee examining the problems with Puerto Rico’s power grid criticized the federal government Thursday for pushing electric vehicles and rooftop solar panels, which most residents can’t afford, instead of permitting power plants that can run on cheap natural gas.
The Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs complained in a statement that federal agencies “have chosen to ignore the practical realities of the island and have instead prioritized renewable energy projects.”
“For example, Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority has proposed shutting down old fuel plants and replacing them with new natural gas plants, but the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau [PREB], the island’s regulator, rejected that proposal in favor of renewable energy projects and solar grids,” the subcommittee said.
The PREB has struggled to complete six proposed tenders for renewable energy projects.
“The practical reality is that the Biden-Harris administration’s prioritization of solar projects is neither feasible nor sustainable, as approximately 43 percent of Puerto Rico’s residents live in poverty,” the subcommittee said. “The initial cost of installing solar panels is $28,500 in cash. For context, the median household income in Puerto Rico in 2023 was $24,002.89. In addition to their high costs, solar panels are highly ineffective against severe weather, as storms can damage and remove residential and, in some cases, large-scale solar panels. The Biden-Harris administration has ignored this reality as it continues to champion rooftop solar projects as its solution to stabilize energy on the island.”
To further exacerbate the challenge, the subpanel said, the Biden-Harris administration’s push to purchase and use electric vehicles has severely impacted the transformer supply chain. The growing demand for electric vehicles has led to an increase in electrification in the United States.
“This increase in demand has put further pressure on transformer supply, which is already taxed by ongoing efforts to replace outdated transformers across the country,” the subcommittee said.
Puerto Rico residents, the subcommittee said, deserve access to affordable, reliable and resilient energy, particularly since they pay one of the highest utility costs in the U.S. The continued instability of the power grid is an obstacle to short- and long-term economic growth.
The U.S. Department of Energy, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Housing and Urban Development Agency, the leading U.S. agencies tasked with helping Puerto Rico rebuild its electrical grid, declined to testify Thursday before the subcommittee.
The subcommittee appeared to consider the transfer of the management of Puerto Rico’s electrical grid from the entity controlled by the island government, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), to the private utilities LUMA Energy (electricity transmission and distribution) and Genera PR (power generation) as a step in the right direction.
“However, LUMA and Genera are responsible for explaining the recent blackouts and must improve to increase transparency and communication,” the subcommittee said. “The Biden-Harris administration’s priority of renewables, such as solar and wind, over reliable sources of baseload power is unsustainable for Puerto Rico. The administration is placing its political agenda above the practical realities of the island and is putting the livelihoods of the 3.2 million residents at risk.”
LUMA Energy spokesperson Juan Saca said LUMA took over as transmission and distribution operator for Puerto Rico’s power grid in June 2021, just four years after the devastating impacts of Hurricane Maria. Even before Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico’s power grid was well below utility reliability standards.
“Our team works every day to replace outdated and faulty infrastructure that was neglected for decades with new, reliable equipment. These are long-term reliability investments, and making the necessary structural changes is a monumental and time-consuming task, but we are making significant progress,” Saca said. “To date, we have replaced more than 17,850 utility poles with new poles capable of withstanding 160 miles per hour winds and installed more than 9,000 automation devices to reduce the duration and impact of outages, which have already prevented more than 140 million minutes of service interruption.”
Regarding the consortium’s capital improvement projects, Saca said LUMA has initiated 460 FEMA-critical projects, with 171 approved and 87% of them, or 149 projects, already under construction or completed. This is a significant achievement, he said, considering PREPA did not move a capital project to construction.
Saca told the subcommittee that LUMA has launched an islandwide Vegetation Safety and Reliability Initiative, which will clear vegetation from more than 16,000 miles of power lines and reduce blackouts by up to 45% once completed.
It also plans to replace the 1.5 million power meters across Puerto Rico with new technology that will help detect blackouts faster, allow for a more timely response when they occur and improve customer service, he said.
“Infrastructure modernization will take time – this is and will be a multi-year transformation that will require even greater cooperation with local and federal partners, who we hope will work with us to address these legacy challenges and help advance critical FEMA funding,” Saca said.
However, Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González Colón, who is the vice chair of the subcommittee, said “the people are tired of you, I’m tired of you, LUMA has to go!”
The member of Congress and candidate for island governor told the LUMA CEO that the consortium was hired to provide better services, not excuses, and that before the hiring LUMA executives knew about the state of the network and the system’s challenges.
“LUMA wasn’t ready on day 1, they won’t be ready in a thousand years,” she said.
González Colón asked the subcommittee to ask LUMA for a list of permits they have requested from federal authorities. LUMA officials complained about the lack of waivers to perform certain grid repairs.
“If waivers are so necessary to speed up their work, why hasn’t LUMA taken any steps to obtain them?” González Colón said. “LUMA cannot come to Congress to ask for waivers without making the effort to submit them to the federal government officially. He [Saca] has not been able to answer us as to what permits he has requested and when he requested them. That is why I requested that they submit for the Committee’s record the list of permits requested at the moment.”
The resident commissioner also criticized federal agencies’ failure to appear at the hearing.
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