Half of Puerto Rico starts the new year in the dark after massive power outage
www.nbcnews.com
Power outages are a frustratingly frequent occurrence for many Puerto Ricans. A string of blackouts during the summer prompted protests and a state of emergency.

Summary

Puerto Rico’s latest power outage has left over 1.3 million customers without power on New Year’s Eve.

The outage is attributed to an infrastructure problem at a power plant on the island’s southern coast.

LUMA, the energy company, is working to restore power in phases, but it may take up to 48 hours.

    • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      8·
      11 months ago

      After hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017 LUMA was developed. It is a partnership between ATCO (Canada) and Quanta Services Inc (USA) to develop and modernize Puerto Rico’s electrical grid over a 15-year contract. (source)

      As such it is a privately-owned grid, not unlike dozens of others in the US. The only difference is that Puerto Rico does NOT receive any federal funds to help offset the costs of the upgrades … the citizens pay every cent themselves to those privately-owned companies.

  • Fredselfish@lemmy.world
    41·
    11 months ago

    Is the Biden administration going do anything about this before Trump takes over and ignores our territory.

      • Kbobabob@lemmy.world
        3·
        11 months ago

        I know you’re just trying to make a funny but he did actually call them and offer support.

        President Joe Biden spoke with Pierluisi on Tuesday evening about the outage and offered federal assistance. Biden also spoke with U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and directed her to offer any help needed to speed power restoration on the island.

        https://www.npr.org/2024/12/31/nx-s1-5243984/puerto-rico-power-outage-blackout-new-years-eve

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
            1·
            11 months ago

            As the person corrected: I knew they were incorrect, but I also didn’t think it was worth pointing out because what type of disposable paper product he threw really does not matter at all. It certainly isn’t worth being rude to them over it.

            • betweenthesixes@lemmy.world
              4·
              11 months ago

              Apologies if this came off as rude, I truly meant no harm. While I understand the specifics in this case are relatively trivial to most, my intent was to simply underscore the value of fact checking and attention to detail when correcting someone. This was likely a poor instance to attempt to convey that message.