Genera PR accepts full responsibility for outage impacting 160,000 customers
Cites aging equipment, generation shortfalls
By THE STAR STAFF
Genera PR, the private operator of Puerto Rico’s aging fleet of legacy power plants, has accepted full responsibility for the power outage that affected nearly 160,000 customers earlier this week, attributing the event to a series of equipment failures that reduced available generation capacity across the island’s electrical system.
Speaking on the radio program “Normando en la Mañana,” Genera PR Vice President of Government and Public Affairs Iván Báez said the company would not attempt to shift blame for the interruption.
“In this incident we had this week, where nearly 160,000 people were affected, the responsibility is 100% Genera’s,” Báez said. “We are going to be transparent.”
According to the company, the outage resulted from multiple generation units becoming unavailable within a short period of time. Báez said Unit 5 at the Costa Sur power plant had been out of service for more than two weeks because of problems with its main transformer, removing some 400 megawatts from the system.
While the grid had continued operating without load shedding despite that loss, additional problems emerged this week when Unit 5 at the San Juan power plant was forced offline, and another generating unit reduced its output from 210 megawatts to 90 megawatts because of concerns over a component failure.
“The combination of those three elements created a situation of insufficient generation,” Báez said.
The executive praised repair crews for restoring Costa Sur Unit 5 in Guayanilla to service, noting that critical maintenance teams have been working around the clock to return generation assets to operation.
Báez said the incident highlights the challenges of operating an aging fleet of power plants, many of which have been in service for decades. He argued that similar failures could have occurred under the former Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) system, but that outages now receive greater public visibility because of advances in communications technology and real-time reporting by customers.
“We are working with equipment that is decades old,” Báez said. “What we have now is greater visibility through transparency, social media and customers reporting outages in real time.”
The company also disclosed that the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau (PREB) reduced a portion of the budget originally allocated for maintenance of generation facilities, although Báez declined to speculate on the regulator’s reasons for the decision. In a motion to the PREB, Genera also revealed that the temporary energy units purchased by PREPA in 2024 to stabilize the system were also in deteriorating condition.
Báez said maintenance work continues and noted that Genera has also benefited from support provided through the U.S. Department of Energy.
Looking toward long-term solutions, Báez pointed to a federally funded battery energy storage program that Genera expects will significantly reduce future load-shedding events. The company is overseeing some $2.8 billion in Federal Emergency Management Agency-funded reconstruction and grid modernization projects, including utility-scale battery installations.
Once the battery systems are operational, Báez said, the company expects up to 90% of load-shedding events to be eliminated.
The first battery project, located in Vega Baja, is expected to begin commissioning by the end of the first quarter of next year. Similar installations planned for Costa Sur and Aguirre in Salinas are expected to take about another year to enter service.
Báez also addressed recurring criticism surrounding seven temporary generating turbines that some observers have claimed suffered damage due to inadequate maintenance. He rejected those allegations, noting the turbines were used units brought from the Middle East and installed under an emergency mission led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
He said the units have undergone major maintenance and have been heavily utilized to compensate for existing generation shortages, describing the situation as “the lesser of many challenges” facing Puerto Rico’s generation fleet.
The latest outage comes as Puerto Rico continues to struggle with limited reserve capacity and aging infrastructure, even as federal reconstruction funds are being deployed to modernize the island’s power system and improve reliability over the coming years.
