Apr 10, 2022 - Energy & Environment

Power restored to over a million in Puerto Rico after blackout

A man holds up the light of his mobile phone so that another can read from a notebook in San Juan, Puerto Rico, after a major power outage hit the island on April 6. Photo: Ricardo Arduengo/AFP via Getty Images

Power has been restored to most of Puerto Rico following an island-wide outage.

Driving the news: LUMA Energy, the company that manages electric power distribution and transmission in Puerto Rico, said Sunday power had been restored to 99.7% of its 1.5 million customers.

Details: The island-wide outage began on Wednesday after a fire at one of the company's largest power plants, per the New York Times.

  • Schools were forced to close on Thursday and Friday, and more than 100,000 residents were without water, according to ABC News.

The big picture: This is the latest in a series of problems with the island's energy grid, which LUMA acknowledged.

  • "[T]here is no doubt that this event has exposed the fragility of the energy grid and how important it is for all of us to work together to improve grid reliability," the company said.
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