Senate hearing examines recovery efforts in Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) recently chaired an oversight hearing of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources examining the recovery efforts in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands following the devastating effects of Hurricanes Irma and Maria.

“The totality of recovery work that still needs to be done in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands is overwhelming,” Murkowski said. “Restoring electricity is the immediate priority.”

Murkowski continued, stating that electricity had been out for far too long and was harming the health of both local residents and their economy. She added, however, that the awful and tragic conditions provided an opportunity to rebuild the electric grids in a smarter manner — whether through microgrids, distributed generation, burying lines where possible, and utilizing direct current over alternating current.

In testimony to the committee, Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority Executive Director and CEO Julio Rhymer Sr. highlighted the significant efforts made to harden the territory’s grid from successive disasters and to allow for greater resilience.

“Over several years, we’ve been able to basically tap hazard mitigation funds, and that’s why we have underground systems that actually generate basically power to about 75 to 80 percent of our businesses within our commercial districts on St. Thomas and St. Croix,” Rhymer said. “That’s what we’ve been doing since each storm — that we try to learn from each lesson learned — how to underground and how to become more resilient.”

The committee also received testimony from U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Kenneth Mapp, Puerto Rico Gov. Ricard Rosselló, U.S. Department of Energy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Electricity Delivery and Reliability Bruce Walker, Major General Donald E. Jackson, Jr., Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority Executive Director Ricardo Ramos, and Puerto Rico Energy Commission Acting Chairman José Román Morales.