Nearly 23,000 Puerto Ricans remain without power more than seven months after Hurricane Maria destroyed the island’s already crippled power grid and just three weeks before the next hurricane season begins.
Walter Higgins, the new CEO of Puerto Rico’s troubled and debt-ridden power authority, said Tuesday that about 98 percent of the grid has been restored, but thousands of homes and businesses in rural pockets of the U.S. territory don’t have electricity.
“This is not good enough,” said Higgins, the CEO of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, who is in his sixth week on the job after his predecessor resigned amid the state-run utility’s troubled response to the hurricane.
“The grid did not withstand the hurricane,” he added, in testimony to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “The grid has to do better and be restored faster.”
Senators in both parties said they worry that federal authorities may be too quick to declare “mission accomplished,” as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers prepares to withdraw from Puerto Rico on May 18, which marks the end of the agency’s recovery mission as established by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Hurricane Maria caused the largest and longest blackout in U.S. history.
FEMA oversees disaster relief efforts on the island, working with the Army Corps, Department of Energy, and the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority.
“I would imagine the thousands of Puerto Ricans without power would look at that date and say, wait you can’t leave us,” said Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairwoman Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.
Charles Alexander, director of contingency operations and homeland security headquarters at the Army Corps, responded that “all options” will be looked at, but said the agency plans to withdraw as scheduled unless told otherwise by FEMA.
That answer did not satisfy senators, who noted how relatively quickly Texas and Florida recovered from major hurricanes last year with help from the Trump administration.
“More than 22,000 Puerto Ricans are without power. Is that really mission accomplished?” said Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M. “I can’t imagine a scenario where 20,000-plus Texans or Floridians are without power and FEMA would make that decision. I think that’s a reprehensible decision.”
Bruce Walker, an assistant secretary at the Energy Department, told senators his agency is working with PREPA to provide “technical assistance” as it rebuilds and redesigns the grid.
He said the Energy Department has nearly completed a report on recommendations to PREPA and FEMA on making the grid more resilient, so it can respond to disasters that cause power outages more quickly.
The federal government, Puerto Rican leaders, and many lawmakers are aiming to turn disaster caused by Hurricane Maria into opportunity, proposing a long-term reimagining of Puerto Rico’s electricity grid by incorporating renewable energy and cutting-edge technologies such as microgrids.
A microgrid is generally installed to power a single site or small group of structures that share a common owner, such as a hospital or school system.
Walker said the Energy Department’s report encourages the use of microgrids and energy storage, a technology in which batteries can store energy and manage solar and wind power so that it can be used during times when the sun isn’t shining and wind is not blowing.
Higgins said the power authority on Monday adopted a new national standard for all future construction of the power grid, which he said would help bringing needed workers to rebuild the grid, acquire parts faster, and facilitate the adoption of new technologies.
“We believe with the right technology, maintenance, and a new view on how to build the grid back, Puerto Rico’s grid can be the grid customers need,” he said.
But Murkowski pushed the various agencies repairing Puerto Rico’s grid to take ownership of the job and establish clear lines of authority.
She noted the island has suffered from island-wide blackouts, caused by mistakes by contractors overseen by PREPA.
Because the power system still lacks enough backup lines and generators, each outage shut down most of the grid.
“I do hope we don’t take the eye off the ball until this is done,” Murkowski said. “My fear is always after every disaster the news is there for a cycle, relief efforts are there for a limited time, and we move on to the next disaster or next issue and the people who remain vulnerable feel forgotten. Well, we won’t forget the people of Puerto Rico. We are going to stay on this.”
