Nearly two months after the worst hurricane in more than 90 years came barreling through Puerto Rico, millions of U.S. citizens on the island remain without power — a massive humanitarian crisis. While the immediate cause for this crisis was the hurricane, a different storm had been brewing in Puerto Rico for some time.
The island’s weak power grid has suffered from mismanagement and systematic flaws for years. This is why nearly 45 percent of the island remains in darkness so long after the storm. Each day, first responders continue to work tirelessly to assist the crippled island hoping to help bring homes and hospitals back on line.
The island’s recovery efforts have not been without significant setbacks. The Whitefish Energy contract scandal has caused a massive distraction leading to temporary blackouts and suspension of work as the company demands to be paid. Since the news of the $300 million Whitefish contract broke, Puerto Rico’s governor Ricardo Rossello and now-former executive director of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), Ricardo Ramos, have been called before Congress to answer for these missteps and lack of transparency.
If there is an upside to any of this, it is that Congress and the Trump Administration now have an opportunity to bring an entirely new energy grid to the island, and from the ashes build a new age energy grid that uses a mixture of power sources, that is cost-effective and more importantly, storm resilient. This new grid will usher in a new era of energy production for the Puerto Rican people.
The story of how we got to this point begins with PREPA, the island’s sole producer of electricity and one of the largest public power utilities in the United States. In the decades before the storm, chronic underinvestment and inconsistent management have led PREPA’s facilities and business practices to fall significantly behind industry standards, leading to poor economic conditions and a $9 billion budget shortfall. PREPA’s infrastructure has for a long time been ignored and underfunded mostly due ineffective collection efforts and longstanding mismanagement.
Many people on the island have been demanding changes to PREPA for the last 10 years, but these calls have been ignored. PREPA has continued to claim there is nothing they can do to improve their system that won’t cause a major loss of power throughout the island. As it happens, that excuse no longer works, now that power actually has been lost throughout the island.
There are four major problems that a new grid can fix. The first is the current unstable centralized power model that PREPA has used. Because power generation is centralized in one location, the island is vulnerable to the horrible aftermath effects we have seen play out over the last two months. The second problem is the reliance on a massive grid of power lines which, if hit with a storm, make an operational power plant useless until the lines can be properly repaired. Third is the continual mismanagement of PREPA by political appointees. As we have seen with the Whitefish deal, if the proper management is not in place, millions of taxpayer dollars are at risk. Lastly, the island is overwhelming reliant on one source of electricity — petroleum. This is an unusual source, and it subjects Puerto Rican electricity to very large price swings.
In 2016, the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimated that 47 percent of Puerto Rico’s electricity came from petroleum, 34% from natural gas, 17% from coal, and 2% from renewable energy. These numbers are unfathomable. Puerto Rico has the opportunity to lead the way and adopt an all-of-the-above energy policy that emphasizes clean, renewable energy and energy diversity that will address all of the current issues.
While restoring power to the Puerto Rican people remains the focus of the island’s recovery, new ideas are becoming more favorable. Governor Rosello has already taken to the idea of addressing the centralized power problem by proposing the construction of microgrids. These grids will be supported by an expansion of the renewable energy sources which the governor claims will make up 20 to 25 percent of the island’s energy source within five years. In the most positive step forward, Governor Rosello told the House Natural Resource Committee during his testimony that they are discussing the possibility of allowing private energy companies access to the island. In fact, Department of Economic Development and Commerce Secretary Manuel Laboy believes Puerto Rico has a historic opportunity to modernize the weak power grid and envisions a scenario in which private companies run power generation while PREPA manages transmission.
What has happened in Puerto Rico is a tragedy, the likes of which the island has never seen before. But within this tragic situation lies a silver lining, Puerto Rico now has the opportunity to start fresh with the creation of a new, renewable, and more resilient electrical grid. Renewable energy companies and investors are eager to assist with this fresh start, bringing with them top-notch know-how and capital to the island.
While the debate about the type of energy infrastructure will play out in the coming weeks, it would behoove everyone to keep in mind the importance of energy diversification to avoid a déjà vu situation that recreates the same dire recovery problems that the island of Puerto Rico is currently facing.
Mark Pischea is President and CEO of Conservative Energy Network, an organization created to support and connect state-based conservative clean energy and energy efficiency organizations throughout the nation.
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