publicly criticizes private company over power outages

It's the first time Gov. Pedro Pierluisi denounces Luma Energy, which has a contract over the power transmission and distribution, after much public outrage over the spike in outages.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico’s governor on Thursday denounced the private company his administration contracted to take over the island’s power transmission and distribution system amid a recent spike in electricity outages that have outraged many in the U.S. territory.

It is the first time Gov. Pedro Pierluisi has publicly criticized Luma Energy — a consortium made up of Calgary, Alberta-based Atco and Quanta Services Inc. of Houston — despite street protests and calls on social media for Pierluisi to cancel Luma’s 15-year contract that began in June 2021.

“I am not satisfied with the performance of Luma,” said Pierluisi, who previously had defended and praised the company. “It is obvious to me that you have to make changes to your execution plan to significantly improve the service you are offering our people.”

Luma spokesman Eliezer Soto said the company would hold a press conference later to talk about the ongoing outages.

Luma’s roughly 1.5 million clients have been hit by power outages that have worsened in recent months and have forced some businesses to close since they cannot afford to run generators on expensive fuel. One of Puerto Rico’s largest hospitals was left without power last week when one of its generators failed in the middle of an outage.

Luma and Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority have blamed aging infrastructure, lack of maintenance, bad weather, sargassum and even an iguana for the blackouts. Officials also stress they’re working with a system just now being rebuilt after Hurricane Maria razed the U.S. territory’s power grid in September 2017.

Pierluisi said that was not an excuse.

“Although I recognize that the electrical network we have is fragile and obsolete, it is Luma’s responsibility to operate it under the critical and emergency state in which it finds itself,” he said.

Fires at substations have become increasingly common and Puerto Ricans have posted social media videos of crackling and sizzling equipment, as well as pictures of what they say are absurdly high power bills. Seven electricity rate increases requested by Luma have been approved by Puerto Rico’s Energy Bureau this year alone.

“There is no governmental action to address these problems,” said José Luis Dalmau, president of Puerto Rico’s Senate and a member of the main opposition party. “It’s unacceptable that in the face of this chaos, the governor is alienated from the reality that people are experiencing.”