Power slowly returns to Puerto Rico after sudden islandwide blackout

Approximately 47% of customers in Puerto Rico have had their power restored after an islandwide outage Wednesday that affected 1.4 million.

Power company LUMA said more than 689,000 customers have had power as of 8:45 a.m. Thursday. 

The blackout that hit around 12:40 p.m. Wednesday also left more than 300,000 people without water, snarled traffic and caused businesses to close, all during Holy Week. 

It was the second sweeping power outage to rock the island in less than four months, with the last one unfolding on New Year’s Eve.

Puerto Rico Gov. Jenniffer González Colón said in a press conference Wednesday that she was told the outage was due to the transmission of power, not generators. She noted that every day that goes by without electricity, the island’s economy loses $230 million. 

LUMA Energy stated in a statement Wednesday that the blackout was “caused by a combination of factors,” including a protection system failure as the initial trigger, followed by the presence of vegetation on a transmission line between Cambalache and Manatí, according to the preliminary investigation.

The company stated that service is estimated to be restored for 90% of customers within the next 48 hours.

By Thursday morning, more than 224,000 customers, or about 17%, were temporarily without water service because of the outage, but 83% of customers had a normal supply of drinking water, Puerto Rico’s Water and Sewer Authority said. 

“Our personnel are working tirelessly to restore service to affected areas as soon as possible, and we project that the percentage of supply customers will continue to increase as the power system regains its generation capacity,” the agency said.