By The Star Staff
Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia said Monday that “there is nothing one can say” to electricity customers who do not have service due to lack of generation or breakdowns.
“Every time someone is without electricity, it’s terrible,” the governor said in response to questions from the press. “And there’s nothing else, there’s nothing one can say, except to demand, depending on what it is, whether it’s generation or distribution, that Genera or LUMA [Energy] address the situation.”
“Obviously our commitment is to continue monitoring and supervising these two entities to improve their performance, because I know that the people … not just the people in general, are not satisfied and I am not satisfied,” Pierluisi added.
When asked if it was possible to have LUMA Energy, the private operator of electric power transmission and distribution, report in advance which sectors specifically will be left without service due to so-called load shifting, the governor replied that “I understand that they are doing it to the extent that they can, but if they can do better, that is welcome.”
Regarding the request to declare a state of emergency due to the electricity situation, Pierluisi said such a declaration was already made in March 2021.
“A state of emergency was already declared for the electrical infrastructure in Puerto Rico and it was also required that the entire permitting process be expedited for all necessary work on the electrical infrastructure,” he said. “Likewise, this declaration of emergency was recently amended to allow the National Guard to be activated in support of our communities, of our municipalities, when there is no electrical service. In other words, that has already been done. What happens is that now at the municipal level, I will add, this was not your question, but I add it, at the municipal level, … they can also declare an emergency because that perhaps complements the declaration of emergency that we already have at the central government level.”
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