House panel to summon Genera execs to explain outages

By THE STAR STAFF

Rep. Víctor Parés Otero, who chairs the House Government Committee in the lower chamber of the island Legislature, announced Sunday that he will summon the management of power plants operator Genera Puerto Rico early this month to explain the reasons behind recent power outages and whether they are indeed linked to staffing shortages.

“Over the past two weeks, breakdowns at several power plants -- including Aguirre and Costa Sur -- have left many customers without electricity. In response, Genera [...] management has justified the situation by claiming they were forced to cut staff and that the remaining workforce lacks the experience to handle incidents like those that occurred,” Parés Otero said in a written statement. “This is ironic, given that a look at Genera’s website shows they are actively recruiting for multiple specialized positions. In the past, the private operator of the transmission and distribution grid, LUMA Energy, used a similar excuse; that is unacceptable to both this administration and the House of Representatives.”

“Given this situation, we are going to summon Genera Puerto Rico executives to a public hearing now -- in early August -- so they can be held accountable to the public regarding those unfortunate statements and the actions they will take to prevent similar incidents,” the lawmaker added. “They will also be required to present a realistic, verifiable assessment of the power generation system -- including repairs and ongoing projects -- as well as their projections for the remainder of the Atlantic hurricane season, which ends on November 30.”

On April 17, Genera announced a reduction in its workforce, including technical staff. At the time, it attributed the decision to the “implementation of operational adjustments resulting from a determination by the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau.”

Last week, Energy Czar Josué Colón Ortiz blamed Genera’s decision to lay off specialized workers for operational failures in the power generation system.