Electricity service in Puerto Rico is slow to return following Hurricane Maria, EIA report says

More than one month after Hurricane Maria, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) has partially restored service to 18 percent of its customers in 35 of 78 municipalities, according to a recent report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

After Hurricane Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico on Sept. 20, PREPA reported that all 1,570,000 of its electricity customers were without power after the storm due to extensive damage to the territory’s transmission infrastructure.

EIA said that Puerto Rico’s electricity generation in 2016 was mostly fueled by petroleum and natural gas, accounting for 47 and 34 percent of overall generation, respectively. In that same year, coal made up approximately 17 percent of the territory’s electricity generation while renewables accounted for the remaining 2 percent.

Approximately two-thirds of the territory’s electricity generation capacity is located along the southern portion of the island while most of its population is concentrated in the north. The report noted that some electricity generation in the south must be transmitted on long-distance transmission lines, many of which were damaged during Hurricane Maria.

In response to extensive infrastructure damage, PREPA has been working with U.S. federal partners and private industry to restore electricity to the territory. EIA said immediate projects included providing power to facilities such as hospitals, shelters, schools and water pumping stations.

More recently, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded contracts to provide temporary power stability to the San Juan metropolitan area with a planned operation date scheduled for today.