SESA calls out LUMA on unilateral request for limits to energy exports

Javier Rúa Jovet, director of public policy at the Puerto Rico Solar and Energy Storage Association

By The Star Staff

The Puerto Rico Solar and Energy Storage Association (SESA) publicly criticized LUMA Energy on Monday for its unilateral request to the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau (PREB) to limit energy exports from solar customers.

In a petition submitted on Aug. 20, LUMA Energy requested that the PREB approve revisions to smart inverter settings, which it had initially proposed on June 20. The private grid operator stated that the growth of distributed energy resource systems in Puerto Rico is occurring at an exponential rate, with a 16% increase in the number of systems, bringing the total to more than 165,000 between November 2024 and May 2025. LUMA expressed concerns that the rapid expansion is causing widespread voltage violations and believes that the proposed changes will help prevent costly upgrades to feeders and substations.

On Monday, SESA urged LUMA to resume direct and collaborative dialogue to define smart inverter adjustments together, allowing solar systems to remain connected more frequently and contribute to stabilizing Puerto Rico’s electrical grid.

“What is needed is not bureaucracy or unilateral proposals; what is needed is diplomacy,” said Javier Rúa Jovet, SESA’s director of public policy. “In any other conflict, the absence of dialogue would never produce solutions. All that is required is for LUMA to invite us to sit down and work together on a proposal for evaluation by the Energy Bureau.”

SESA indicated that on June 20 of this year, LUMA submitted a proposal for inverter parameters to the PREB without consulting SESA or the solar industry, despite the PREB’s instruction to conduct collaborative processes. Since that time, SESA said, it has asked LUMA to restart the dialogue more than 10 times, without receiving a productive response from the company.

SESA noted that when voltage exceeds current limits, solar systems go offline, preventing solar customers from exporting energy to the grid and receiving their net metering credits. With appropriate adjustments, inverters can remain online and help restore voltage to safe levels, benefiting both solar and non-solar customers.

As an example, SESA pointed out that a similar challenge was faced in Hawaii, where the utility collaborated closely with the solar industry and national laboratories to expand inverter parameters. That approach helped avoid unnecessary disconnections while improving grid stability.

“What we propose is a responsible path: direct dialogue between LUMA and the solar industry to develop a coordinated proposal that results in effective solutions,” Rúa Jovet said. “It is unfair to conduct a unilateral process that only wastes customers’ time and money.”