Governor questions Energy Bureau’s speed ​​in approving electricity rate hike

The Popular Democratic Party Senate minority delegation characterized the latest developments in the island’s energy saga as yet more proof that the governing administration has not kept its promises.

PDP senators see yet another reminder of broken campaign promises

By THE STAR STAFF

Gov. Jenniffer González Colón questioned on Wednesday the speed with which the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau (PREB) approved the electricity rate increase, which began appearing on bills on Wednesday, and demanded that the same efficiency be applied to approving new power generation projects.

“For this, the Energy Bureau was incredibly fast. It’s so difficult to get new power generation projects approved, but for this, they moved incredibly fast,” the governor said at a press conference. “We will work to ensure that when this is recovered, there is also a reduction in the electricity rate. We cannot keep passing the buck and making the people pay for these problems.”

According to the PREB’s decision, a residential customer with a monthly consumption of 800 kilowatt-hours will see an approximate increase of $16.25 on their bill. The governor emphasized that the increase adds to the effects of the dispute with New Fortress Energy and the San Juan Bay pilots’ association that is holding back the gas tanker from delivering needed liquefied natural gas.

“In my opinion, this is outrageous,” González Colón. “We are all going to pay the price for this. We have increased 1,200 megawatts of generation to stabilize the system and avoid blackouts, but now we face this crisis because of a conflict that has nothing to do with the government.”

The Popular Democratic Party (PDP) Senate delegation meanwhile, saw the latest developments in the island’s energy saga as more proof that the governing administration has not kept its promises.

The party’s Senate minority leadership held a press conference Wednesday to remind the public that the new increase (which they set at an average of $26.50 per month) in the rate for LUMA Energy customers “is the 12th increase since 2018,” PDP Senate minority leader Luis Javier Hernández Ortiz noted.

“Today, following the announcement by the Energy Office [Bureau], we in this delegation were already prepared to present to the public the results of a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Education regarding the millions of dollars allocated to it by the Net Metering Program, demanding answers from that agency,” he added.

Sen. José Luis Dalmau Santiago stated that “this Jenniffer González administration is hitting the people of Puerto Rico again with another electricity rate increase, approved by the Energy Office.”

“We are dealing with an administration that campaigned claiming it would remove LUMA Energy, and all its actions have been the opposite,” the former Senate president added.

Sen. Ada Álvarez Conde added that the PDP delegation has consistently scrutinized the González Colón administration, and that it has been a failure.

“To this day, the so-called Energy Czar is just a title, because the legislation for that position has not been introduced,” she said. “This is yet another disregard for the voters who trusted those promises to remove [grid operator] LUMA Energy.”

Sen. Josian Santiago Rivera asserted that “it is tragic, it is an insult to the entire country that the Jenniffer González administration is spending this entire weekend partying at one of the most expensive hotels.”

‘While you, the citizen, who plans a family gathering and then has a power outage, has to cancel or postpone it,” he said.

“This administration continues to party on, oblivious to the reality faced by Puerto Rican households,” Santiago Rivera added.

The delegation went on to list the legislative initiatives they have introduced as part of their role in the Senate. Among them, they highlighted Senate Joint Resolution 10, which ordered the government to begin terminating the LUMA Energy contract. Although introduced on January 2, 2025, the measure was defeated by the New Progressive Party majority.

Also on Wednesday, some 150 people protested outside the main offices of LUMA Energy on Juan Ponce de León Avenue in Santurce, opposing the increase in electricity rates.

Officers from the Puerto Rico Police Department, assigned to the San Juan and Santurce precincts, were deployed to the area to ensure security during the protest.

No violent incidents related to the demonstration had been reported as of press time.