Residents of Puerto Rico were left in the dark on Wednesday as the island experienced a massive blackout resulting from a service interruption at the island’s power distribution company, Luma Energy.
The power outage began shortly before 1 p.m. local time, and all of the company’s 1.4 million customers were left without electricity, according to multiple reports. Over 328,000 people did not have running water due to the outage as of Thursday morning.
Blackouts have been a problem for the island. Puerto Rico has endured more than 200 since 2022. Wednesday’s power outage was the second massive blackout to hit the island since New Year’s Eve.
A company spokesman blamed the outage on an unexpected shutdown at the company’s power plants, and Gov. Jenniffer Gonzalez, a Republican, said there was a “failure in the transmission of the electrical system.”
“While the cause of the interruption is being investigated, preliminary findings indicate an unexpected shutdown at all generating plants,” a representative from Luma Energy said.
The company worked overnight to restore service to the island’s residents. By early Thursday morning, USA Today reported that approximately 231,500 people, or about 16% of the island’s customers, had their power back. Luma Energy estimated it could take between 48 and 72 hours to restore service for everyone.
Gonzalez was traveling on vacation when she received word of the power outage.
“This is a shame for the people of Puerto Rico that we have a problem of this magnitude,” the governor said.
Gonzalez reportedly cut her vacation short and returned to Puerto Rico due to the emergency, according to reports. She took to social media to express her frustration and sympathy for her island’s residents.
“There are no words that can ease the frustration we feel as a people in the face of another massive blackout,” Gonzalez said in her post. “I’m with you because the people of Puerto Rico deserve their officials to respond in times of crisis, and that’s why I’m here.”
Puerto Rico’s energy infrastructure has faced significant challenges in recent years, and the island’s energy grid is largely unreliable. In January, the Department of Energy announced over $1 billion in funding to help the island’s energy challenges.
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Gonzalez said there would be a thorough investigation into Wednesday’s blackout and that changes would be made to try to prevent such power outages in the future, according to reports.
“Puerto Rico can’t be the island where the power goes out all the time,” Gonzalez said. “We’re going to take action. Let people have no doubts.”
