Zapata resigns, Osorio named new interim head of PREPA
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
By THE STAR STAFF
The governing board of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) has accepted the resignation of the public corporation’s executive director, Mary Zapata Acosta.
In an extraordinary meeting Thursday, board members unanimously accepted Zapata’s departure. As detailed, the engineer by profession presented the letter of resignation, effective immediately, on Wednesday. The board members did not go into the reasons for her resignation.
Engineer Fernando Osorio Caño, director of the hydroelectric plants division, will serve as interim director.
Zapata’s departure comes a day after the firm Power Expectations filed a lawsuit against PREPA over the cancellation of a contract that sought to inject 400 megawatts into the electrical grid from an installation at Aguirre power plant in Salinas.
Zapata has publicly said she was never informed that an official from one of the members of the Power Expectations consortium, Enchanted Rock, had claimed that his signature on the contract was unauthorized.
Zapata also claims she was not informed that Power Expectations had brought Texas firm Flotek to the consortium.
Sources close to the issue say Zapata was asked to leave the post because she no longer had the trust of Energy Czar Josué Colón Ortiz following remarks she made about the Power Expectations contract. The departure also takes place as the island Legislature had sought information from PREPA on the failed Power Expectations contract.
Colón Ortiz said Thursday afternoon that he did not know anything about Zapata’s departure because he was at a hearing in the House of Representatives all morning. However, he did not answer questions about whether Zapata was informed of the problems with the Power Expectations contract.
“We are dealing with different times,” Colón Ortiz said. “No messages show any crime.”
He also denied that his legal adviser failed to inform Zapata.
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