San Juan Puerto Rico — The U.S. government announced Thursday that $325 million in federal funding will be available for solar and battery storage facilities across Puerto Rico as the U.S. territory grapples with chronic power outages.
The program, funded by the US Department of Energy, will focus on community centers and healthcare facilities, as well as common areas of subsidized multifamily housing.
“Homes are not the only place where power is needed during and after an emergency,” said US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm during a visit to Puerto Rico.
The announcement comes amid widespread anger over blackouts that repeatedly leave Puerto Ricans in the dark. The island of 3.2 million people has a poverty rate of more than 40% and some cannot afford a generator.
Government officials say the cuts also endanger the lives of those who rely on oxygen, refrigerated insulin and dialysis machines.
Granholm visited the southern coastal town of Santa Isabel on Thursday, one of several towns in the area affected by a power outage in June that left 10,000 customers in the dark.
That same month, another widespread blackout It left some 350,000 customers without power across Puerto Rico, prompting Governor Pedro Pierluisi to order an investigation.
“It’s unacceptable,” Granholm said of the situation.
The blackout in Santa Isabel and nearby towns led Luma, a private company that operates energy transmission and distribution, to install emergency generators.
Luma also launched a $4 million effort to transport and install a new megatransformer in the area, but the plan collapsed after crews discovered an “internal issue” rendered the equipment unusable, further angering customers and government officials. .
Luma recently said it would relocate another transformer based in the southeastern coastal city of Maunabo, but the announcement angered the local mayor, who blocked access to the equipment, saying his city depended on it.
Luma has said the transformer is not essential to supplying electricity to Maunabo.
On Sunday, Luma warned that at least 11 transformers at electrical substations across Puerto Rico are “vulnerable” and if they failed, tens of thousands of customers would be left without electricity.
Puerto Rico’s electrical grid remains fragile almost seven years later Hurricane Maria hit the island as a powerful Category 4 storm, leaving some without power for up to a year.
While the storm devastated the power grid, it had long been crumbling due to a lack of investment and maintenance by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, which is s until trying to restructure more than 9,000 million dollars of debt.
Before Maria, renewable energy generation in Puerto Rico was 3%. Since then, it has grown to 9% thanks to households and businesses that have been able to afford to install rooftop solar and storage, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
In the middle of the cuts, Puerto Ricans have been affected by increases in energy bills that many have denounced. Puerto Rico’s electricity rate is now 41% higher than the average United States rate.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Energy also announced an $861 million loan guarantee to help build two solar photovoltaic parks in the southern cities of Guayama and Salinas. The guarantee was offered to Clean Flexible Energy, LLC, an indirect subsidiary of AES Corporation and TotalEnergies Holdings USA, Inc.
Before arriving in Puerto Rico, Granholm visited the U.S. Virgin Islands on Tuesday, where officials announced $100 million in federal funding to help purchase fuel storage facilities.
The U.S. territory has also battled chronic power outages in recent years, with island-wide blackouts affecting St. John and St. Thomas on the day of Granholm’s visit.
Nearly three months ago, Governor Albert Bryan Jr. declared a state of emergency following ongoing power outages on St. Croix.
The water of the US Virgin Islands & The Power Authority faces crumbling infrastructure, and several local agencies, including waste management authorities and entities such as hospitals, owe more than $11 million in total accumulated debt.
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