# Puerto Rico's energy grid - what gives? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 15, 2024, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puerto-ricos-energy-grid-what-gives/1005735 "2024-08-15T14:12:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2024, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puerto-ricos-energy-grid-what-gives/1005735/1 "2024-08-15T14:12:03Z")
So the folks down there got hammered by a hurricane (again) and most of island lost power (again). How is it the energy provider there has not rebuilt their grid in a robust manner? Is it physically impossible? Are they being cheap in their outlay? Building it once in a hardened fashion has to be cheaper than rebuilding it over and over again. Anyone have any knowledge about this? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2024, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puerto-ricos-energy-grid-what-gives/1005735/2 "2024-08-15T14:20:35Z")
Well, there is that little detail that after throwing paper towels to Puerto Ricans after the hurricane, Trump and his administration made sure Puerto Rico wouldn’t get financial aid to recover from the hurricane. > **[New probe confirms Trump officials blocked Puerto Rico from receiving...](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna749)** > > The Trump administration also obstructed an investigation looking into why it was depriving the U.S. territory of congressionally approved funds, the report found. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2024, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puerto-ricos-energy-grid-what-gives/1005735/3 "2024-08-15T14:21:10Z")
This Bloomberg article notes a number of issues: > [@](#): > > Red tape, federal agencies’ delays in releasing funding, PREPA’s bankruptcy, and a lack of resources to build more resilient infrastructure all contributed to the island’s still-shaky energy grid. The fossil fuel-dependent electricity grid also relies on above-ground transmission lines that are particularly vulnerable in bad weather along Puerto Rico’s mountainous terrain. > [@](#): > > Congress is 2016 passed the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA) creating an oversight board for the commonwealth to manage its debt restructuring and help approve critical infrastructure projects. > > Grijalva, however, described the grid modernization effort at this point as “failed” and said the island still needs “a public utility that is independent, ethical, and has real strong oversight.” > **[Why Puerto Rico Has Struggled to Stabilize Its Electricity Grid | Bloomberg...](https://about.bgov.com/news/why-puerto-rico-has-struggled-to-stabilize-its-electricity-grid/)** > > Hurricane Fiona battered Puerto Rico earlier this month, knocking out power to nearly half of the island’s 3.3 million residents. Full power hasn’t been restored as of Thursday. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2024, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puerto-ricos-energy-grid-what-gives/1005735/4 "2024-08-15T14:30:55Z")
Also, after Hurricane Maria destroyed major parts of the electricity distribution network in September 2017, the decision was made by then governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rosselló, to privatize the electrical utility which was formerly the Commonwealth-run Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority. In 2020 the franchise was contracted to [LUMA Energy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LUMA_Energy), a purpose-created entity to provide all services as ‘reduced cost’. It has not gone well to say the least. Wikipedia has a decent summary: > **[Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico_Electric_Power_Authority)** > > The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA; Spanish: AEE) Is an electric power company owned by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico responsible for electricity generation, power distribution, and power transmission on the island. PREPA was the only entity authorized to conduct such business in Puerto Rico, making it a government monopoly, until on January 22, 2018, former governor of Puerto Rico, Ricardo Rossello, announced that all assets of the company will be sold in a general privatizatio Th... Stranger ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2024, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puerto-ricos-energy-grid-what-gives/1005735/5 "2024-08-15T14:48:45Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > Building it once in a hardened fashion has to be cheaper than rebuilding it over and over again. If it takes 20 years to build out the replacement hardened grid, what happens when every 5 years a bunch of your existing grid is destroyed … again. Same thing applies to local power distribution in PR and the rest of the USA. You (the customers) need to pay for routine repairs, post-disaster repairs, capacity upgrades, _and_ incremental hardening. Most customers opt to forego that last very expensive step. So the utility regulators follow the customer’s desires. And that’s all _before_ we get into the usual rapacious crony capitalism and regulatory capture. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2024, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puerto-ricos-energy-grid-what-gives/1005735/6 "2024-08-17T20:46:41Z")
I’ve lived in places where they systematically replace damaged infrastructure with hardened. Of course some of the damaged stuff that didn’t get hardened can and does get redamaged. But eventually it all gets hardened. From what I’m reading, they never even start hardening anything, just hurry up and do the same thing over and over again. This is why I hate privatization of essential services. The stockholders come first. Service be damned. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2024, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puerto-ricos-energy-grid-what-gives/1005735/7 "2024-08-18T14:16:40Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > You (the customers) need to pay for routine repairs, post-disaster repairs, capacity upgrades, _and_ incremental hardening. Most customers opt to forego that last very expensive step. factor in that in regions like LatAm/Caribbean a non-trivial percentage of clients are “colgados” … (freeriders, illegally conected to the overhead cable salads). Also, a huge problem is that cables are being run, but never actively retired if no longer needed: [![](https://img.eldefinido.cl/portadas/650/participa-366-2013-03-23-6422OUW5187.jpg) ](https://img.eldefinido.cl/portadas/650/participa-366-2013-03-23-6422OUW5187.jpg) obv. the higher the cable load, the higher the chances of a falling tree catching on and downing the whole post and leaving all other cables w/out energy (often for safety reasons) ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2024, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puerto-ricos-energy-grid-what-gives/1005735/8 "2024-08-18T14:26:38Z")
If the majority of the electrical system’s customers are poor, the money just isn’t there (short of government subsidies) to upgrade much beyond a third-world standard. In the continental USA industrial customers are the big driver of the power grid; how much industry is in Puerto Rico to be able to demand and pay for a reliable power grid? ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2024, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puerto-ricos-energy-grid-what-gives/1005735/9 "2024-08-19T18:25:39Z")
I have heard one issue is taxation. There is no state tax (since PR is not a state) and they pay few Federal taxes so there is an attitude of “Why should we give them money if they don’t pay into the system.” I don’t know if that is actually true or not. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2024, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puerto-ricos-energy-grid-what-gives/1005735/10 "2024-08-19T18:43:55Z")
I don’t know if it is the case there, but a lot of the time these privatized companies just suck whatever money they can, run the system into the ground with minimal repairs, and rely on the government to come and bail out an essential service when an outlier event happens. After all, privatized or not, the government cannot stand idly by and say “not my problem” about an essential service. ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2024, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/puerto-ricos-energy-grid-what-gives/1005735/11 "2024-08-19T20:33:33Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > There is no state tax (since PR is not a state) There are still Commonwealth taxes. > **[Taxation in Puerto Rico](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_Puerto_Rico)** > > Taxation in Puerto Rico consists of taxes paid to the United States federal government and taxes paid to the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Payment of taxes to the federal government, both personal and corporate, is done through the federal Internal Revenue Service (IRS), while payment of taxes to the Commonwealth government is done through the Puerto Rico Department of Treasury (Departamento de Hacienda). > Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States and Puer...