New company, same woes: Puerto Rico suffers power outages

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A private company that took over power transmission and distribution in Puerto Rico this month has struggled with widespread outages and growing anger.

FILE - In this Oct. 19, 2017 file photo, Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority workers repair distribution lines damaged by Hurricane Maria in the Cantera community of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Luma, the private company that took over power transmission and distribution in June 2021 has struggled with widespread outages, affecting more than 1 million customers so far in its first two weeks, triggering several mayors to declare a state of emergency and distribute ice and generators.

“This has turned into chaos,” said Javier Jiménez, mayor of the western town of San Sebastián, which had established its own brigade of workers to make repairs after Hurricane Maria largely destroyed the U.S. territory’s electrical grid in 2017, leaving some people without electricity for nearly a year.

Government officials have urged patience, noting that Luma only just took over a system running on rickety infrastructure, much of it patched together after Hurricane Maria. But many customers are seething, including José Aquino, a 38-year-old gymnastics instructor who said he and his family have been without power for 14 hours at a time on several occasions this week. His father is a diabetic and had to throw away his insulin before buying a small cooler to store it on ice.

 

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