Transferring the grid to a private company should help. But last week thousands of people protested more power outages.

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PR Aguadilla-Four years after Hurricane Maria plunged Puerto Rico's power grid into chaos and the entire island was in darkness, residents had expected their fragile power system to be stronger now. On the contrary, unreliable electricity is still widespread, hindering economic development and daily life.

In June, a private consortium called LUMA Energy took over the transmission and distribution of electricity. However, the situation will only get worse. The surge in demand in August and September caused most of the island's 1.5 million electricity customers to be affected by rotating power outages.

Thousands of people marched on a major highway in the capital San Juan last week, and there has been a series of protests recently that seem to be plagued by the island’s power problems endlessly.

"People can't stand it anymore," said 69-year-old Iris Delia Matos Rivera, who was a former employee of the island’s power company and recently attended a protest activity.

Many Puerto Ricans suffer from diabetes and require refrigerated insulin to survive. The coronavirus pandemic has also caused some people to undergo respiratory treatments at home, requiring oxygen generators to be powered at home. Some Puerto Ricans are still studying or working at home.

Ashlee Vega, who lives in northwestern Puerto Rico, said the power fluctuations this month were so imperceptible that it took her hours to realize that her appliances were not working properly. The new refrigerator she bought in February-to replace the old refrigerator that broke down after years of unstable power surges-was blown up.

Her mother lent her a big cooler. It contains milk and eggs, ham and cheese. The vegetables have gone bad. For the next five days, twice a day, until the repairman got her refrigerator to work, she hurried to the gas station to fetch ice. At first there was nothing to do, because a series of power outages also made her neighbors rush.

"I can't let this happen again," said Ms. Vega, a 31-year-old veteran who brought her 7-year-old son Sebastian back to her hometown of Aguadilla from Colorado last year. "This is not what should happen. We are in 2021. We have internet on our TV. Why don't we have electricity?"

Behind the failure are the same problems that have plagued Puerto Rico's power grid for decades: aging equipment, lack of maintenance, and damage to systems that were poorly managed and inefficient in the past.

The bankrupt utility company still in charge of power generation declared a state of emergency this month in an attempt to speed up critical repairs to its poorly-conditioned factory. Puerto Rico’s electricity bills are higher than almost all 50 states, and although services have deteriorated, electricity bills continue to rise.

The privatization of transmission and distribution-the part of the power system most damaged by Hurricane Maria-has brought new challenges, including public distrust and the retirement or renewal of experienced line workers who know how to deal with the island’s outdated infrastructure. deploy.

The system is so fragile that a power plant was recently shut down because sargassum (seaweed) clogged the filter.

Puerto Rico’s Electricity Authority (prepa) and the newly formed Canada-U.S. private consortium were unable to provide continuous electricity, leading to weeks of accusations, intense legislative hearings, and growing numbers of residents who were tired of protests against the governor’s removal two years ago. street.

"That LUMA contract must be thrown into the trash can!" the protesters chanted on Friday.

After Hurricane Maria damaged Puerto Rico's power lines into a Category 4 storm in September 2017, workers repaired Puerto Rico's power grid with an emergency repair cost of US$3.2 billion. Congress approved the Federal Emergency Management Agency to allocate approximately $10 billion to rebuild the system. These projects will be contracted by a new consortium with the purpose of restoring the power grid to its pre-storm state and carrying out some modernizations.

Agustín A. Irizarry, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Puerto Rico, said that although this approach is consistent with the federal government’s response to disasters, it is short-sighted and unsustainable. He promoted a plan to distribute solar energy on residential and commercial roof panels. And battery.

"People do it by themselves, and there is no government intervention," he said. "Ultimately, the grid will not have customers because they will not bother to modernize the grid."

Last week, the Puerto Rican government announced the first allocation of federal reconstruction funds: $7.1 million.

Puerto Rico signed a 15-year contract with LUMA last year to operate the transmission and distribution system and handle its reconstruction. It believes that private companies will do better than PREPA, one of the two largest public power companies in the United States. Although PREPA is in bankruptcy—it has $9 billion in debt—Puerto Rico is paying a fixed annual fee of $115 million to the new company.

Governor Pedro R. Pierluisi stated that the new contract promises to reduce the number and duration of power outages. But the contract drew criticism from the beginning, and some analysts pointed out that if the company did not find savings and lower interest rates, it would not face penalties.

LUMA took over in June, and its senior officials said they were ready to deal with a Category 2 hurricane. (No one attacked the island this year.) Almost immediately, the massive power outage began. The customer found that the company was slow to respond to their complaints. Some residents tried to repair the grid on their own, prompting utility companies to warn against such dangerous attempts.

LUMA CEO Wayne Stensby said in an interview in June that the company launched a new website and app to provide better customer service, opened a call center on the island, and A series of other improvements are planned, including upgrading the fleet.

He blamed the initial chain of problems on the backlog of power outages, cyber attacks, and resistance by some PREPA staff before the handover on June 1, including the blockade that prevented LUMA from accessing certain devices. He added that some temporary repairs performed after the hurricane have been put on hold for some power lines, and workers have restored power by tying the wires to trees instead of poles.

Stensby said at a congressional hearing this month that it will take time to repair this dilapidated system. The company has cleared half of its backlog of solar applications — some of which have been in use for two years, he said — and has a batch of 65 initial projects valued at approximately $2.8 billion, which it hopes will begin next year.

"Puerto Rico's power system is arguably the worst in the United States, and it has lasted a long time, even before the devastating hurricane in 2017," Mr. Stensby said. "Although the transformation is still in its early stages, we have many reasons to be optimistic."

PREPA workers have to reapply for a job, which is an arrangement opposed by their union. About a quarter of grid workers ended up being transferred to the new company, which led critics to worry that the workforce might not have enough experience in dealing with Puerto Rico’s outdated grid.

At the beginning of the transition, an explosion and fire occurred in a main substation, which caused a large number of power outages.

"After 26 hours, we were able to recover all these customers," Mr. Stensby said. "We can demonstrate our capabilities and respond quickly to incidents."

But the records submitted by LUMA from June to August show that the average duration of the outage was longer than last year under PREPA: more than 5 hours, compared to less than half in the same period in 2020. (The average time in the U.S. is about 82 minutes.) Mr. Stensby said at a congressional hearing that the system is still unstable — and customers have underreported power outages because they don’t want utilities to respond.

Puerto Rican legislators demanded to know exactly how many production line workers LUMA employs. There are approximately 800 in PREPA history. Mr. Stensby said at this month's hearing that the company has about 900 employees, but he did not specify how many people had previous work experience in Puerto Rico, only that a large number of them have.

The legislator also asked how many executives earn more than $200,000 a year. Although the Puerto Rico Supreme Court ordered the company to respond, the company refused to respond.

Juan Declet-Barreto, Senior Social Scientist on Climate Vulnerability of the Union of Concerned Scientists, is a member of a coalition that urges the Biden government to withhold federal funds used to pay the company, unless in contract Safeguards have been added to and it better harmonizes the White House’s policy goals to promote renewable energy and protect workers’ rights. Otherwise, funds will be wasted, Dr. Declet-Barreto said.

"When another hurricane comes, it is not necessarily Category 5-if there is a tropical storm, half of the island will be powered off," he said.

For exhausted Puerto Ricans like Ms. Vega, struggling with power outages day after day, the political pressure on utilities is welcome, but not enough. For her, no one seems to be responsible for her spoiled food, her refrigerator repair, the homework she lost while studying for a bachelor's degree online, and her son's fear every time there is a power outage.

"My neighbor, an old man living alone, locked himself in because of fear," she said. "I brought him candles."

Once she can afford a house, she hopes to install solar panels.

Currently, she plans to put a bag of ice in the refrigerator just in case. Her landlord asked her to use less electricity. She only turns on the air conditioner for a few hours every other day.

When she leaves the apartment, she must unplug the computer, TV, washing machine and refrigerator.

Edmy Ayala contributed reporting from PR San Juan