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blackout in Puerto Rico. The nation’s power system failed on Wednesday due to a fire at the Costa Sur power plant. According to authorities, it could take 12 to 24 hours for the service to resume.
Firefighters from the nearby cities of Ponce and Guayañilla came to put out the fire and are currently on a “cooling mission.” They reported that they did not know what caused the incident.
Gov. Pedro Pierluisi explained on Twitter that there was a “serious failure in Mid-Sur,” causing the entire power system to be “protected and out of service.”
“Preliminary – the governor added – it is estimated that it will take about 12 to 24 hours to restore services, with priority given to hospitals and essential services.”
Ponce Regional Commander Juan Cordero reported at this time, @Bomberos_de_PR Fires affecting two substations in Costa Sur in central Guayañilla were extinguished. They are engaged in cooling tasks. pic.twitter.com/e40uqpXsXA
— Fire Department (@Bomberos_de_PR) April 7, 2022
hospital with generator
LUMA Energy, the company responsible for the power distribution, said in a statement that the outage “could have been caused by the failure of a circuit breaker at the Costa Sur power plant”, but at this time they did not have “the exact cause.
“LUMA crews are responding and working to restore service as quickly as possible. Given the scale and scope of the outage, power restoration may be extended this Thursday.”
The hospitals are running on generators and, according to Health Minister Carlos Mellado, have “sufficient fuel supplies and no major inconveniences have been reported”.
Power outages in Puerto Rico are frequent, but usually not for long.