FILE - Las Palmas Cafe employees work with power from a generator during an island-wide blackout in San Juan, Puerto Rico, April 7, 2022. SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Two private power companies came under scrutiny Wednesday while they presented plans to stabilize Puerto Rico’s crumbling electric grid as officials demanded immediate action to minimize, which handles transmission and distribution, lasted more than five hours as they answered questions by Puerto Rico’s Energy Bureau and others.
The ongoing outages come as crews make permanent repairs to the grid following Hurricane Maria, which caused an estimated $9.7 billion in damage to the system’s transmission and distribution.US halts plan to remove iconic stray cats from a historic area in Puerto Rico’s capitalWalmart recalls apple juice sold in 25 states due to elevated arsenic levels
In addition, 144 projects out of 460 submitted to the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is helping fund the grid reconstruction, are under construction. The company said it would prioritize large substation and transmission projects in the next two years, as well as launch preventive transmission maintenance. Eight major substation projects have all been obligated by FEMA, while three of four transmission line projects are awaiting that status.
Meanwhile, Genera PR pledged to reduce forced outages by half, as well as restore 800 megawatts of capacity by November following repairs. The company noted that a main power station in southern Puerto Rico is expected to come online this weekend, which would boost generation. Another one is expected to do the same in late October.