Latest news Power outage paralyzes Puerto Rico
Large parts of the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico lost power on New Year's Eve. Almost 90 percent of the approximately 1.5 million customers were affected, according to the electricity grid operator Luma. The phased restoration of the electricity supply has begun - it is expected to take 24 to 48 hours to complete. The disruption occurred at around 5.30 a.m. (local time).
31.12.2024, 20:48
SDA
Fault triggered a chain reaction
The cause of the blackout may have been a fault in a substation, the broadcaster NotiUno quoted a spokesperson for the energy supplier Genera PR as saying. This led to a chain reaction in which several power plants failed. Experts are in the process of determining the exact cause and examining how the grid can be restarted.
With around 3.2 million mostly Spanish-speaking inhabitants, Puerto Rico is the largest outlying territory of the USA. At just under 9,000 square kilometers, the easternmost island of the Greater Antilles is less than half the size of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
As an associated free state, Puerto Rico is not part of the United States of America. Although the inhabitants are US citizens, they are not allowed to vote in US presidential elections and their delegates to Congress in Washington do not have the right to vote.
Island hit hard by hurricane in 2017
The island has a notoriously unstable power grid. The infrastructure is still suffering from the consequences of the devastating hurricane Maria, which claimed the lives of almost 3,000 people there in 2017.
Most recently, hurricane Ernesto caused widespread power outages in Puerto Rico in August.
