Puerto Rico's Lights Are Back On, But Challenges Remain

Everyone in Puerto Rico was in for a surprise on New Year's Eve. At 5:30 a. m. , a massive power outage left almost the entire island in the dark. This wasn't the first time something like this happened. The island's power grid has been struggling for years, ever since Hurricane Maria hit in 2017. By Wednesday afternoon, Luma Energy, the company in charge of power distribution, announced that electricity was back for 98% of the 1. 47 million customers. That's good news, right? Well, not so fast. Luma warned that there could still be temporary outages in the coming days. The grid is just too fragile. Governor-elect Jenniffer González Colón had some advice for residents. She urged everyone to be careful with their energy use to help prevent more outages. She even promised to appoint an "energy czar" to keep an eye on things. But the problems don't stop there. Puerto Ricans are also dealing with a hike in electricity rates. Starting this month, rates will go up by 2. 2 cents per kilowatt hour for residential customers. That means electric bills will jump by nearly $20 for the average household. It's a tough situation, but Puerto Ricans are no strangers to power struggles. They've been dealing with unreliable electricity for years. In June, over 340, 000 customers were left without power due to soaring temperatures. And during Hurricane Ernesto in August, over half of all utility customers lost power. So, while the lights are back on for now, there's still a lot of work to be done to stabilize Puerto Rico's power grid.