By The Star Staff
In response to an FTI Consulting report on the June 12 blackout that found that LUMA Energy needed a formal analysis and contingency planning for at-risk loads and did not comply with North American Energy Reliability Corp. reliability standards, the private operator of the island’s electric power transmission and distribution system on Tuesday provided alternate reasons for the outage, noting that it also conducted an analysis of the event.
As reported by the STAR, FTI, the firm contracted by the Public-Private Partnerships Authority to investigate the June blackout, noted in its report released Monday that the protection device system did not provide the primary and backup protection required during the events, and that there is poor management in prioritizing and addressing vegetation problems.
The FTI report with recommendations has been sent to the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau (PREB), the regulator of the island’s energy sector, for review and possible action.
In its response, LUMA listed measures it has taken to improve the island’s energy grid.
“All of us at LUMA recognize the deep and real frustration felt when outages occur, and we remain fully committed to improving reliability and overcoming the historic challenges we face across the electrical system,” the grid operator said. “As part of this commitment, in July we submitted reports to the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau on the events of June, which included a Root Cause Assessment conducted by Exponent, a third-party expert. According to the reports, a combination of historically damaged service equipment and lack of maintenance and [obstruction by] vegetation caused the outage. LUMA has already launched a system improvement program to address these and other vulnerabilities.”
LUMA enumerated some of the steps it has already taken to address the underlying grid stability issues.
“For example, we have replaced a large transformer at the Bayamón transmission center, even as we continue to modernize aging transmission and substation equipment across the island to improve long-term reliability,” the operator said. “In the south, we rebuilt and energized Line 200 and are in the process of installing a transformer at the Santa Isabel substation.”
Additionally, LUMA said it has already launched the Vegetation Safety and Reliability Initiative, which will strategically clear hazardous vegetation from over 16,000 miles of power lines and will help reduce service interruptions by up to 45% across the island once completed.
Regarding generation, LUMA said the severe lack of generation capacity is a longstanding issue in Puerto Rico “that has resulted in system instability and ongoing interruptions for our customers.”
“Even though LUMA is not responsible for or operates any generation facilities, we are committed to doing everything we can to help address Puerto Rico’s generation capacity issues,” the company said in its response. “In fact, it was LUMA that advocated for the rapid deployment of emergency generation in the wake of Hurricane Fiona. In less than a year, this effort led to the first FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency]-funded generators being deployed in Puerto Rico, permanently adding 340 MW [megawatts] of generating capacity to the island’s grid.”
“We will continue to use expert input to help us improve the power grid today and in the future as we continue to work alongside our regulators and government to learn from the past and build the reliable and resilient power system our customers deserve,” LUMA said.
Gov. Pedro Pierluisi Urrutia said Tuesday that the FTI report on the June 12 blackouts confirms his suspicions of a lack of diligence on the part of LUMA Energy and Genera PR, the private operator of the island’s legacy power plants, and warned that both companies will have to assume the costs of repairs without using government operational funds, if the PREB confirms the report’s findings.
“If it is confirmed that it was due to a lack of diligence on the part of LUMA or Genera that we had these blackouts, the costs to restore service have to be borne by these two entities,” Pierluisi Urrutia said in response to questions from the press. “The people, the subscribers of the Electric Power Authority, are not going to pay for that. That is my position that I said from the beginning and now what I suspected is being confirmed.”
The governor added that he had already warned LUMA about the need to prioritize the maintenance of critical substations and the management of vegetation along important transmission lines, but that the errors have been repeated.
“In April 2022, there was a failure at a substation in Costa Sur, and in August we had another blackout due to a failure in a transmission line,” Pierluisi said. ”And what happened on June 12? A substation failed again, as did an important transmission line, and faults had been detected that were not addressed.”
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