An unspecified fault led to a fire at the Costa Sur power plant outside Guayanilla on the southwest coast at around 8:45 pm on Wednesday, cutting off power to the entire island, said Kevin Acevedo, vice president of utility LUM Energy of Puerto Rico. at a press conference. Since then, firefighters have extinguished the flames. All customers on the island initially lost their electricity service, Jose Colon, Puerto Rico’s chief telecommunications and infrastructure engineer, told reporters, “because all the plants went off.” LUMA Energy, which manages the island’s electricity grid, expects power to be restored within 24 hours of the incident, Acevendo told a news conference. The power outage has also cut off water to about 100,000 homes and businesses, Governor Pedro Pierluizi said, citing the island’s aqueduct and sewerage authority. Pierluizi suspended school classes across the island on Thursday and told unnecessary government officials to stay home. Only civil servants “with basic and extraordinary functions should be present at their work,” Pierluizi said in a press release.
The floor of the hospital’s intensive care unit was temporarily without electricity
The intensive care unit at Mayagüez Medical Center on the west coast of the island was temporarily without power due to problems with the backup generator, with the result that LUMA is particularly focused on restoring electricity there, officials said. Electricity at the site has finally been restored, Puerto Rican Health Minister Carlos Mellado López said on Twitter. Four patients on that floor were intubated and would have been transported to a floor with electricity if the service was not restored quickly, officials said earlier. Puerto Rico airports were closed and no flight cancellations were reported, officials said. Police have a plan to help traffic with the lights off, but “we are asking for the co-operation of drivers on the streets,” Pierluizi said.
Spare parts for a power plant were ordered, the official said
Early Thursday, the utility service said the “massive blackout across the island” may have been “caused by a circuit breaker failure” at the Costa Sur plant. Firefighters extinguished the blaze that hit two substations at the factory, the Puerto Rican Fire Department said on Facebook on Wednesday. The cause of the fire is being investigated, Acevendo said Thursday morning, adding that the equipment was up to date in maintenance inspections. Cleaning at the plant is ongoing and spare parts have been located and ordered, Acevedo said. LUMA is a joint venture between Quanta Services and Canadian energy company ATCO, which the Puerto Rican government has chosen to run its electricity grid from its former public utility, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority. LUMA is responsible for the electricity network from June 1. CNN en Spain’s Rafi Rivera contributed to this report.
