Genera says preparations for TS Ernesto were adequate

Iván Báez, vice president of government and public affairs at Genera PR

By The Star Staff

The preparations and measures implemented before the passage of Tropical Storm Ernesto near Puerto Rico were adequate, said Iván Báez, the vice president of government and public affairs at Genera PR, on Tuesday.

A week after the storm hit in mid-August, tens of thousands of customers remained without power across Puerto Rico.

The official said Genera crews are currently working on the breakdowns caused by the storm, primarily due to breakdowns in the electricity transmission and distribution system operated by LUMA Energy, which in turn forced Genera, the private operator of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s (PREPA) legacy power plants, to reduce generation.

“Well, at this moment, Genera is working on repairs due to the chain of events that occurred after Ernesto passed,” Báez said. “The [power plant] fleet operated and resisted quite well, as did the other private companies offering the service. Certainly, the load had to be reduced in several of the units because there were many LUMA clients out due to transmission and distribution failures. The Friday after the event happened, we had a series of chain events, Friday and the following week; many of them were repaired, but we still have two units, units 6 from San Juan and two from Aguirre, which will take several additional weeks to repair.”

The best demonstration that preparations were sufficient, Báez said, was that “we activated our Emergency Management Center 24/7.”

“During that entire process we had all the areas aligned, fuel, operations, projects, purchases, all the groups aligned, including the Linden Command Center,” the official said.

“We have been here for a year and a month, and still, well, there are always things that can be improved, and we learn from what we have to work on, but certainly, the fleet provided service during the emergency,” Báez said.