In September 2022, weeks after Hurricane Fiona’s devastating blow, a CBS news crew huddled in the living room of a local Puerto Rico resident. To the 58-year-old woman, access to electricity wasn’t just a convenience; it was a matter of life or death, powering the machine that supplied her oxygen. Yet relying on the Puerto Rico battered energy grid has proven to be risky for everyone. From those battling severe medical conditions to families struggling to keep their food from spoiling, blackouts have become their new normal. It is becoming increasingly evident that rebuilding from the foundation up will be a long, arduous journey. Worse still, the financial investments needed to truly recover were not available until now.
Puerto Rico’s flawed energy grid is nothing new. Many have traced systemic issues in the power grid to when the first major power plant was established in the 1970s. The power plant was built near the primary facilities of the oil industry on the island’s south side. However, with 70% of Puerto Rico’s population residing in the north, this design flaw continues to cause disruptions, as most of the energy is transmitted along a network of 32,000 high- and low-voltage lines, which creates complications in transmitting power (1).
Additionally, Puerto Rico’s very location in the hurricane alley of the Caribbean makes consistent power distribution a constant struggle. In September 2017, the small island was hit twice by storms of historic proportion, first by Hurricane Irma, then immediately followed by Hurricane Maria, causing widespread devastation. After the skies cleared so did any illusion of a reliable or resilient power grid. The grid collapsed and left the island in blackout conditions for nearly a year. The island needed 328 days, nearly 11 months, to restore power to all the customers affected by the hurricane. Major infrastructure was impacted and much of the grid never fully recovered before Hurricane Fiona hit 5 years later, further damaging an already fragile grid.
Navigating the Energy Landscape
Hurricanes Irma, Maria, and Fiona highlighted the vulnerability of the grid’s foundations. In 2017, prior to the hurricane season, an external audit revealed that the grid appeared to be ‘running on fumes (2)’. In 2021, following the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) bankruptcy, the island privatized the transmission and distribution of power, entrusting LUMA Energy with the maintenance and modernization of the grid. LUMA Energy, a joint venture between Quanta Services and ATCO, is actively working toward rebuilding, albeit with a challenging process ahead of them. Despite the privatization, residents have continued to experience dangerous outages and price fluctuations. Further privatization followed in July 2023, with Genera now responsible for power generation.
The years following Irma and Maria showed little progress toward the recovery of the grid. In 2022, 2 days prior to the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria, Hurricane Fiona, a Category 1 tropical storm hit the island and laid bare any progress made to rebuilding the grid. Puerto Rico was once again left in the dark, and residents along with major industry sectors experienced severe disruptions. Electrical infrastructure was again damaged, and the existing issues were exacerbated by a grid that had never fully recovered.
While hurricane season has brought much attention to the energy issues on the island, rectifying the course of how energy is produced on the island has also played a major role in creating a more resilient grid.
Meeting Puerto Rico’s Energy Targets
The 2019 Puerto Rico Energy Public Policy Act aims for 100% of its electricity needs from renewable energy by 2050, with key interim milestones along the way: 40% by 2025, 60% by 2040, and coal-fired generation phaseout by 2028. It also mandates a 30% improvement in energy efficiency by 2040 (3). The establishment of these targets was driven by the aim for future economic expansion, advancing agriculture, and ensuring a robust food supply system. The realization of this growth relies on enhancements in the stability and resilience of the electricity supply.
In February 2022, the Department of Energy (DOE), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Department of Homeland Security (which includes FEMA), and the Puerto Rico government signed a memorandum to maximize investments and expedite all work necessary to recover and bolster the power grid. This agreement was a catalyst for the Puerto Rico Grid Resilience and Transition to 100% Renewable Study, also known as the PR100. The PR100 is a comprehensive analysis that was developed by the DOE’s Grid Deployment Office and six national laboratories to support Puerto Rico’s successful transition to 100% renewable energy by 2050, as well as increase resilience and affordability of energy. The study outlines five actions necessary for Puerto Rico to reach their renewable energy targets, including: responsive stakeholder engagement and energy justice; data gathering and generation; scenario generation and capacity evaluation; impact modeling and analysis; and reports, visualizations, and outreach. The PR100 released its first-year progress report in January 2023, and plan to release its final results on February 7th, 2024.
In addition to the PR100, efforts within the community have also become a driving force behind building energy resilience in Puerto Rico. Key initiatives have included the Community Energy Resilience Initiative (CERI) and Resilience Hubs. CERI, formed out of a collaboration between Fundación Comunitaria de Puerto Rico, RMI, and the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), is an effort to find new ways for scaling affordable widespread access to resilient renewable energy. As of June 2023, CERI celebrated the completion of its first three microgrid solar and storage systems in Puerto Rico. These projects will serve as a catalyst for CERI to apply lessons learned to expand the benefits of these projects to about 350 other critical facilities across the island. To improve energy resilience in vulnerable Puerto Rican communities, the DOE Office of Economic Impact and Diversity (ED) partnered with the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) to fund $992,000 for Reliance Hubs. These hubs will provide reliable electricity during grid events or climate-related disasters, catering specifically to each community’s needs.
Navigating Energy Resilience for the Future
To support Puerto Rico government efforts to stabilize the grid immediately following Hurricane Fiona, FEMA, the DOE, EPA, and the Army Corps of Engineers established the Puerto Rico Power System Stabilization Task Force. This task force awarded Weston contracts to bring 350 MW of temporary power to support the long-term recovery work initiated by PREPA. Providing temporary power while repairing the existing power grid is essential to a successful transition to renewable energy infrastructure as mandated by the Puerto Rico Energy Public Policy Act and PR100.
Since Hurricanes Irma and Maria, FEMA has obligated more than $30 billion in funding to support recovery in Puerto Rico (10). Over $12 billion of the recovery funding has been dedicated to building a more resilient and sustainable grid, with plans to invest the remaining funds in the repair and restoration of public buildings and transportation infrastructure.
Weston is currently on-track to assist in furthering the efforts of creating a reliable and resilient energy grid in Puerto Rico. Current projects are focused on temporary power generation to support long-term resiliency initiatives.
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