SAN JUAN – The electricity company LUMA Energy, in charge for 10 days of the transmission and distribution of electricity in Puerto Rico, said this Friday that The reasons why part of a substation , near San Juan, caught fire, which left some 900 without power, 00 0 clients, of which there are currently now 19, 00 0 that are still without power.
This was detailed by the president of LUMA Energy, Wayne Stensby, in a press conference in which he was accompanied by the director of LUMA System Operation Projects, Gary Soto; the executive director of PREPA, Efran Paredes, and the secretary of Public Security, Alexis Torres, in which he said that he hoped that “what happened yesterday (Thursday) is not normal.”
“All the first ‘responders’, the Fire Department, the Puerto Rico Police, are analyzing the situation to evaluate. The FBI is also analyzing. It is a bit complex due to the situation of restoring the electricity ”, indicated Stensby while Torres pointed out that definitely, nothing can be ruled out.
After insisting that the system The island’s electricity supply is “very fragile”, indicated that it does not expect events like the previous one to occur again.
He also explained that he expects that for the 18.00 local time (22.00 GMT) returns to normal, just 24 hours after the event occurred.
To contribute to this, a mobile substation has been installed at the scene, which the authorities indicate was protected.
LUMA Energy also specified in the press conference that does not have information on how much the damages amount and warned that they have already communicated with the insurance company.
Paredes later indicated at the press conference which considers that the fault that caused the cut power was an accident.
“Sometimes the eyes deceive us, so we have to wait for the final report, but my first impression is that it was simply an accidental breakdown ”, he specified.
Given that the island is a Commonwealth and US territory, the FBI indicated that it evaluates what happened .
For his part, the island’s governor, Pedro Pierluisi, said that the priority “has to be to restore service as soon as possible. ”
For her part, the representative of Puerto Rico in the United States Congress, Jenniffer González, believes that this fact, together with blackouts that have occurred in recent days, are not acts isolated.
Among the areas affected by the blackout are the capital, San Juan, Carolina, Bayamon, Trujillo Alto, Guaynabo, Río Grande, Loiza and Cataño, as well as sectors of Manatí, Caguas and Canovanas, among others.
The latest information from LUMA Energy on the recovery works is points out that still 19, 00 0 customers of the electrical system remain without service. Of these, 13, 00 0 directly use the transformer damaged by fire in Monacillo.
The installation work of the portable substation that was transported to Monacillo to replace the facility affected by the fire continues, according to the company.
Once that installation is finished, we will proceed to reconnect to the 13, 00 0 customers who were directly affected by the fire.
The company indicated that the estimated time to complete the restoration of the system is 20. 00 local time (24.00 GMT).
LUMA Energy assumed -for a period of 15 years- on June 1, the transmission and distribution of the electric power in Puerto Rico, previously in the hands of the state Electric Power Authority (PREPA), which caused numerous protests as employees of the state company switched to the commercial firm due to to the agreements with the Executive and other government agencies.
In these 11 days the island has suffered blackouts of various kinds that affected almost a million customers and several hours before the fire, the company’s website had been the target of a cyberattack.
Since the arrival of the newly created company and the result of the union of the American Quanta and the Canadian Atco, a part of the public opinion has expressed its disappointment at the change in service from PREPA to LUMA when waiting for a substantial change in a deficit service offered by PREPA.