EcoEléctrica's three units go offline and more than 200,000 customers are left without power

On August 15, 2026, El Nuevo Día reports that EcoEléctrica's three units, in Peñuelas, went offline on Saturday afternoon and left more than 200,000 LUMA Energy customers without power. Josué Colón Ortiz placed the start at 5:08 p.m., in a failure at the 230-kilovolt transmission center at Costa Sur, Guayanilla, that affected the line toward EcoEléctrica. LUMA announced selective outages for generation deficiency. At 7:00 p.m., LUMA's portal showed 203,886 customers without service; the peak exceeded 204,000. The hardest-hit regions: Bayamón and Mayagüez, then Ponce, Carolina, and San Juan.

Yamaris Alancastro, of EcoEléctrica, attributed the outage to events on the transmission grid and information of a fire at LUMA's 230 kV switchyard. LUMA, in writing, said a distribution line snapped in bad weather and fell on a 230,000-volt line; seconds later the units went offline. Although fire was reported, LUMA denied a fire in the vicinity. Genera PR, on X, spoke of a fire in that yard and published videos of flames. El Nuevo Día does not choose between the two versions. It leaves them named.

At 7:00 p.m., Genera PR's portal indicated that EcoEléctrica's three gas units were generating 0.31 megawatts. Total generation: 2,316 MW; available capacity: 2,624 MW; operating reserve: 278 MW. Estimated demand for the next hour: 2,898 MW. San Juan: 343 MW; Palo Seco: 237; Costa Sur: 508; Aguirre: 445. Those readings are from the portals via El Nuevo Día.

On August 11, El Diario PR covered load sheds of more than 65,000. On the 16th, Telemundo Puerto Rico will cover AES 1 and AES 2 and some 108,000 customers. Those are other nights. This one covers EcoEléctrica on Saturday the 15th.

Anyone looking for Genera PR's videos or LUMA's bulletin has the El Nuevo Día URL at the foot. This is not original reporting.

Source: El Nuevo Día. https://www.elnuevodia.com/noticias/locales/notas/activan-relevo-de-carga-por-deficit-de-generacion/