San Juan, Puerto Rico – The teams worked early to restore power to Puerto Rico after A blackout throughout the island That affected the main international airport, several hospitals and hotels full of Easter vacationers.
The interruption that began at noon on Wednesday left 1.4 million customers without electricity and 328,000 without water. At least 175,000 clients, or 12%, had energy at the end of the day. Officials expected 90% of customers to recover energy within 48 to 72 hours after the interruption.
“It is a shame for the people of Puerto Rico that we have a problem of this magnitude,” he said Jennifer González rulewho shortened his holidays of a week and returned to Puerto Rico on Wednesday night.
The blackout growled traffic, forced hundreds of companies to close and left the incapable of paying the generators struggling to buy ice and candles.
It is the second blackout throughout the island to reach Puerto Rico in less than four months, with the previous happening on the eve of the New Year.
“Why on vacation?” José Luis Richardson opened, who did not have a generator and remained cool when splashing the water itself.
The roar of the generators and the smell of the fumes filled the air as a growing number of renewed Puerto Ricans called to the government to cancel contracts with Luma Energy, which supervises the transmission and distribution of power, and PR, which supervises the generation.
González promised to pay attention to those calls.
“That is not in doubt or question,” he said, but added that it is not a fast process. “It is unacceptable that we have failures of this type.”
González said that an important interruption like the one that occurred on Wednesday leads to an estimated revenue loss of $ 230 million daily.
Ramón C. Barquín III, president of United Retail Center, a non -profit organization that represents small and medium enterprises, warned that the in progress would scare possible investors at a time that Puerto Rico urgently needs economic development urgently.
“We cannot continue repeating this cycle of blackouts without taking concrete measures to strengthen our energy infrastructure,” he said.
Many were also worried about the town of Elders of Puerto Rico, with the mayor of Canovanas deploying brigades to visit the bed prostrate and those that depend on electronic medical equipment.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Vega Alta opened a center to provide energy to those with medical equipment that save lives.
It was not immediately clear what the closure caused, the last thing in a series of large blackouts on the island in recent years.
Daniel Hernández, Vice President of Operations of Genera PR, said on Wednesday that a disturbance hit the transmission system shortly after noon, a time when the network is vulnerable because there are few machines that regulate the frequency at that time.
Puerto Rico has fought with chronic interruptions since September 2017 when Hurricane Maria They hit the island like a powerful category 4 storm, dragging an electric grid that the equipment is still struggling to rebuild.
The grid had already deteriorated as a result of lack of maintenance and investment.
