In the last decade, the island of Puerto Rico has faced a massive amount of hardship. After Hurricane Maria in 2017, Luma Energy, a private Canadian-American power company, was hired in 2021 by the government of Puerto Rico to control the island’s electrical grid. The grid was previously owned by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), which left many of the island’s infrastructure systems in disrepair. In the years since Luma’s takeover, families all over the island have been negatively impacted by Luma’s continuation of practices that aren’t successful, like the above-ground electrical system, which leaves power lines vulnerable to damage from hurricanes.
The United States’ and Puerto Rican government’s oversight of the island’s environmental and infrastructural issues has affected the entire island for years. The U.S. government has glanced past Puerto Rico’s cries for help after crises; for example, President Donald Trump and the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency blocked Puerto Rico from receiving relief aid after Hurricane Maria.
Advocacy for Puerto Rico’s collapsing electrical system comes mostly from those who have family on the island or who have moved to America from the island. Bad Bunny, a famous Puerto Rican reggaeton artist, released a song called “El Apagón” in 2022. The song title is a phrase used by many Puerto Ricans, including my family, to describe the frequent blackouts that harshly affect communities, and the lyrics carry a call for change. It is high time for Luma to take responsibility for its actions. This begins with Puerto Rican citizens and advocates for the island bringing awareness to the broken infrastructure and electricity systems that currently disrupt the island’s productivity and routine.
“Power outages in Puerto Rico are abusive,” says Michael Ortiz, the president and owner of Muscle Builders, a construction company based on the island. “They occur too often, two to three times a week, and last for an average of two hours.” During blackouts, gas generator fumes cloud the streets, leaving many no choice but to stay inside, and even there the heat can become unbearable. He explains that local businesses and essential services are unavailable during outages, such as restaurants and medical offices. “Electricity service is one of the main, if not the main, infrastructure services needed for [the] economy to be healthy and progressive.”
Maria Isabel Loyola Salgado, a lawyer and full-time resident of Puerto Rico, has experienced over 200 power outages since 2022. “These interruptions hinder my ability to store and prepare food, access clean water, and affect my work performance,” says Salgado. “I have [had to take] a forced day off due to interruptions of more than 24 hours.”
Situations like this have become expected, leading many to make large investments to prepare for the looming threat of power outages. “The unreliable power supply has forced many households to invest in alternative energy sources, such as solar panels and battery storage systems, to mitigate the impact of outages,” Salgado explains. Ortiz confirms this, saying, “[I] had to make an investment of $50,000 in solar panels.”
Due to the frequency of these blackouts, safety has become another residential concern. “Darkened streets and disabled security systems create opportunities for theft and vandalism,” Salgado shares. “For instance, in January 2025, an arson attack in Cabo Rojo destroyed multiple businesses — an incident exacerbated by inadequate lighting and emergency response challenges during a power outage.”
Since events like these can occur, Salgado and other residents are dissatisfied with Luma’s care of the grid. Luma claims to want a modernized future for the infrastructure systems of the island and recently asked the government for up to $25 billion to do so. However, their failure to repair outdated cables and update grid systems has caused the people of Puerto Rico to doubt Luma’s commitment to improving the island’s infrastructural safety.
Puerto Rico has always been a victim of dangerous, even lethal weather conditions. My mother, who grew up on the island, used to tell me stories about the hurricanes that hit Puerto Rico when she was a child. Her parents would board up the windows as she and her brothers played board games by candlelight. The power would go out for hours, if not days. Back then, hurricanes were less damaging to daily life, because the island wasn’t in disrepair.
“The primary challenge is the aging and fragile power grid, which struggles to withstand natural disasters and lacks sufficient investment for modernization,” Salgado states. “This vulnerability leads to frequent and prolonged outages, affecting all aspects of life.” Now that the technology to prevent the loss of power exists, it should be used to implement a real solution for Puerto Rico’s electrical grid.
When Hurricane Maria, which caused the longest blackout recorded in U.S. history, hit the island of Puerto Rico, my mother donated money and supplies to support those in need. Too young to understand, I wondered what all the fuss was about. She constantly worried about what people on the island were going through, but because I had never experienced a hurricane, I didn’t realize the full extent of the devastation Maria brought to Puerto Rico.
Ortiz describes how during Maria, there was “so much time without service,” and “so much chaos in Puerto Rico,” explaining, “Many people died in Puerto Rico during this time, and many sick [people] could not have the needed services … at home or [in] hospitals.” The effects of Maria can still be felt and seen today; towns that used to thrive are boarded up, and homes are still being rebuilt.
After the hurricane, many believed the electricity system should be fully rebuilt underground to prevent outages as disastrous as the ones that occurred in 2017. Puerto Rico needs a “strong power service that evolves gradually to [green] power,” Ortiz states. Although claiming to support this, Luma has not made progress in the four years they’ve had control — in fact, Luma says the most recent island-wide blackout on Jan. 31, 2024, was due to the failure of an outdated underground cable.
“Although the power grid of Puerto Rico is as old as that of the average southern states of the U.S., the grid has not received adequate maintenance over the years,” explains Mario Loyola, a neurologist based on the island. “Chronic corruption is widely thought to have been responsible for this maintenance neglect.”
The grid was privatized when Puerto Rico was billions of dollars in debt, so it was easy for citizens to believe that the reason behind hiring Luma wasn’t for the betterment of anyone but the government. Loyola states, “My message to the government and to LUMA is to come clean, to carefully spell out what the present conditions are like, … and to maintain its independence from the corrupt political elite [on] the island.”
I was in Puerto Rico for the 2024 holidays, which meant I experienced the most recent blackout firsthand. Having gone through this so many times, my grandparents were incredibly prepared. My grandfather switched on his large generator so we could use the fridge and lights around the house. My grandmother threw a New Year’s Eve party, and we watched fireworks explode over a pitch-black island. We were grateful. Too many Puerto Ricans were left in the dark during a night meant for the celebration of a year coming to an end.
“Stop trying to make money [off of] the necessities of your people and start thinking out of the box, in order to achieve a stable system and place Puerto Rico in a competitive market so we can jumpstart our own economy again,” Ortiz says, addressing Luma. The frequency of island-wide blackouts has become unacceptable. Luma was hired not only to improve damaged infrastructure but also to provide comfort regarding the future of Puerto Rico’s electricity system, a job they’ve consistently failed to do. My hopes for the safety of the island and its people are sky-high, but none of them can be achieved if safe, good-quality infrastructure systems aren’t put in place to protect families by the company hired to do so.
