Nearly 110,000 energy customers lose service due to load shedding, San Juan 6 unit failure

Almost 110,000 LUMA Energy customers were without electrical service as of 2:35 p.m. Monday, following the grid operator’s announcement that load shedding -- caused by generation shortfalls and the sudden shutdown of the San Juan 6 unit operated by Genera Puerto Rico -- was ongoing. (generapr.com)

By THE STAR STAFF

A total of 109,992 LUMA Energy customers were without electrical service as of 2:35 p.m. Monday, following the company’s announcement that load shedding -- caused by generation shortfalls and the sudden shutdown of the San Juan 6 unit operated by Genera Puerto Rico -- was ongoing.

“Load shedding is occurring due to generation shortfalls and the sudden shutdown of Genera Puerto Rico’s San Juan 6 unit,” LUMA stated in an update released on its social media channels. “This means some customers may experience service interruptions.”

The company said it was in communication with generation companies to mitigate the impact of the outages, though it reiterated that it bears no responsibility for power generation.

According to LUMA’s online portal, the regions with the highest number of affected customers were Caguas, with 32,171 subscribers without service; San Juan, with 28,942; Arecibo, with 20,125; Bayamón, with 15,490; Mayagüez, with 7,052; Carolina, with 3,315; and Ponce, with 2,897. In total those numbers represent 7.49% of the system’s subscribers.

LUMA urged customers to monitor its official channels for updates while efforts to stabilize the electrical system continued.