By The Star Staff
The Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs of the U.S. House of Representatives will hold an oversight hearing titled “Examining Puerto Rico’s Electrical Grid and the Need for Reliable and Resilient Energy” on Thursday, Sept. 26.
Witnesses are by invitation only.
The hearing comes amid blackouts endured by island residents and questions as to the pace of the grid’s reconstruction.
A feud between the government-owned Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority and privately run grid manager LUMA Energy is also drawing new attention to Puerto Rico’s power struggles. The territory continues to be plagued by outages and heat advisories.
About 350,000 of the 1.5 million electricity customers across multiple municipalities lost power in mid-June.
The island territory’s plight makes Puerto Rico an example of what happens when a warming climate collides with a tottering electrical grid.
Years of underinvestment and poor maintenance by the heavily indebted public utility left Puerto Rico’s grid vulnerable to frequent blackouts. But Hurricane Maria caused horrific destruction in 2017, killing almost 3,000 people and plunging parts of the island into blackouts that lasted nearly a year. That same year, Puerto Rico filed the largest municipal bankruptcy claim in U.S. history.
Public outrage over blackouts and access to affordable electricity has put the spotlight on the public and private managers of the system.
LUMA, which also handles billing for electrical service on the island, has received fresh condemnation over price hikes imposed on its customers. It attributes the hikes to the rising cost of generation fuel.
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