New blackout leaves more than 179,000 LUMA customers without power

More than 170,000 LUMA Energy customers were without electric service at noon on Monday, September 14, according to Primera Hora. The portal of the consortium in charge of transmission and distribution in Puerto Rico reported about 179,873 subscribers without power at that time.

The regions most affected by the lack of service were Caguas, Bayamón, and San Juan, with 43,080, 41,566, and 41,600 customers without power, respectively. The situation adds to the previous two days, when LUMA customers also experienced interruptions due to generation failures.

The power generation in Puerto Rico, mostly operated by Genera PR, is responsible for this new interruption, according to the company itself in a post on X. Genera stated that unit 5 of the San Juan Plant went out of service suddenly.

"Our technical team at the plant is investigating the causes to determine the corresponding action plan," said Genera. In the official update of the generation system, the company reiterated that it was investigating the action plan and that it would provide updates.

At the moment it was not clear how long the service interruption would last. The San Juan 5 episode was part of a day with more than one round of load shifts that same Monday, while LUMA and the generators coordinated availability and demand.