By The Star Staff
LUMA Energy on Wednesday urged Genera PR to take responsibility for recent power generation failures, arguing that load shedding and breakdowns have been caused by insufficient generation and problems at obsolete plants operated by Genera.
LUMA, the private operator of the island’s electric power transmission and distribution system, noted in a written statement that it is not responsible for power generation in Puerto Rico or the state of the facilities where it is carried out.
“At LUMA we are not responsible for generation; we do not manage or operate it,” LUMA’s statement said. “We are also not responsible for the state of the generation facilities. Genera is and must accept responsibility when its plants fail.”
LUMA issued the statement after the spokesman for Genera PR, itself a private operator, said a request from LUMA led to a power failure that left thousands of people blacked out in Bayamón and nearby municipalities.
Genera PR spokesman Iván Báez said LUMA requested a load reduction after Tropical Storm Ernesto downed transmission lines almost three weeks ago. The move resulted in the breakdown of several power generation units.
“After the load had to be reduced because several large LUMA lines fell, the units began to present problems in a chain,” Báez, Genera’s vice president of government and public affairs, said in a radio interview (Radio Isla 1320).
Báez stressed that the affected units are old and can not operate at low capacity, contributing to the failures.
“They are very old units, and the reality is that they are not necessarily designed to go down to a certain level,” he said. “They are units designed to run at full speed.”
The spokesman added that Genera PR continues working to repair the remaining units and that they hope to return them to service as soon as possible, in coordination with the efforts of other generators such as EcoEléctrica, which is also in the process of repair.
Indignant Puerto Rico residents took to social media to condemn recurrent power outages that have been plaguing the island since June.
Several political candidates have called for canceling the private grid operators’ contracts, arguing that they are not complying with requirements to stabilize the energy system.
At a public hearing in the island Senate on Tuesday, Genera PR Vice President of Operations Daniel Hernández tried to address some of those concerns, noting that the island’s electricity system faces serious limitations as repairs at Aguirre Power Plant in Guayama and the EcoEléctrica plant in Peñuelas continue, which could trigger additional load shifts.
Hernández told the Senate Committee on Essential Services and Consumer Affairs that part of the solution lies in a stabilization plan approved by the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which includes the installation of 430 megawatts of batteries by the end of next year.
“The response that we need from the system is a quick response so that when one of these sudden disconnections of a generator occurs, the frequency of the system does not fall,” Hernández said at the hearing.
Echoing Báez’s comments about the age of the generation units and their limitations, Hernández also noted that the island’s generation plants are operating under conditions that they were not designed to face, which is causing an increase in breakdowns.
“They are plants from the technologies of the ’50s and ’60s, and secondly, due to the bankruptcy of the government and the [Puerto Rico Electric Power] Authority, a significant capital investment in the plants was not made each year,” he said.
In response to Committee Chairman Héctor Santiago Torres’ query as to what is being done to avoid the constant blackouts that are impacting so many island residents, Hernández stated that in addition to the battery project, Genera PR is carrying out short-term repairs on the existing units with the aim of increasing the installed capacity.
“Today we have about 3,100 megawatts available,” he said. “By next Saturday, when EcoEléctrica finishes its maintenance, we should be close to approximately 3,700 megawatts.”
The Genera official also stressed the importance of continuing to repair and modernize the island’s energy infrastructure.
“The intention is that by the end of next year we will be able to count on close to 4,500 megawatts in the system in total, the integrated system that includes private generators,” he said.
Yorumlar