By The Star Staff
LUMA Energy President & CEO Juan Saca said Tuesday that the fact that the performance of the energy consortium is a central theme of political campaigns is “a distraction.”
“It is a distraction for our employees, it is a distraction of my time, it is a distraction for those who help us do the work, because time has to be invested in that,” Saca said at a press conference. “I want to clarify that this does not mean that we are not responding to the entities that regulate us. We are regularly issuing reports, we are issuing reports, we will be going to hearings and by law we have to do that and we will have to continue doing it.”
“It is a distraction, because it takes us a lot of time to respond and search for information,” he added. “And LUMA’s response is to communicate progress and education to Puerto Rico.”
Saca also rejected the statements of some mayors about the lack of communication with LUMA executives. He insisted that the private operator of the electric power transmission & distribution system has available records of all the communications it has had with the island’s 78 mayors.
“That we may have a difference in how we do things, yes, that exists,” he said. “But that we are not communicating, that is not the case.”
“First of all, the responsibility for resolving the electricity issue in Puerto Rico is LUMA’s, not the mayors’,” Saca continued. “I know that it is important for everyone to understand that. I know that in the past, it was different, or let’s say they were more involved or worked in a different way.”
He reiterated that of the current 22 cents per kilowatt-hour charged on the electricity bill, 3.5 cents is for the consortium that manages the transmission and distribution of electricity.
“I mean, it is important to educate the people about what is really happening,” Saca said. “Eleven cents of the 22 cents is fuel. Nobody in Puerto Rico controls that. It is not controlled by the governor, the legislator, nobody. And it is important that we educate the communities and the citizens better so that we understand.”
‘Regarding the fact that electricity in Puerto Rico is the most expensive, well, I have good news, it is not the most expensive,” the official said. “In fact, in the Caribbean there are something like 20 other countries that are more expensive and in the United States there are eight states that are more expensive than Puerto Rico.”
Saca acknowledged that “[t]hat is no consolation until the system begins to behave and reduce service interruptions, because that bothers people and everyone a lot.”
Saca and several other LUMA executives have been summoned to a public hearing in the island House of Representatives today.
Meanwhile, in response to the proposal by Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González Colón, the New Progressive Party candidate for governor, and Manuel Calderón Cerame, the Popular Democratic Party candidate for the District 4 (San Juan) seat in the House, to establish a new entity to oversee LUMA, Saca said the private consortium would adapt to the public policy that is established.
“In every country there is a public policy and I have worked in six countries and that public policy, whether we like it or not, we have to follow it,” he said. “Today that public policy is that there is the Energy Bureau, there is the [Financial Oversight and Management] Board and the P3A [Public-Private Partnerships Authority] and we have a specific relationship with each one of them. If the government of Puerto Rico decides to have an energy ZAR [“czar”], then we will work with that energy ZAR to comply with whatever it may be.”
“We will work with whoever Puerto Rico’s public policy decides [we must work with],” Saca added. “We don’t get involved in that; we simply adapt to whatever comes.”
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