Puerto Rico goes dark after widespread power plant failure
SAN JUAN (Reuters) -Puerto Rico was hit with a massive power outage on Wednesday after energy plants across the island unexpectedly shut down, power generator Genera said.
Puerto Rico has long dealt with chronic power outages, including a blackout on New Year’s Eve, as its infrastructure crumbles.
Genera added in a post on X it was working to bring backup units online and investigate the cause of the incident.
Energy distribution company LUMA Energy said the outage began around 12:40 p.m. local time. As of 2 p.m., all plants on the U.S. territory were still offline, real-time data from Genera’s website showed.
“We will provide updates as soon as more details become available regarding the cause of the outage and the timeframe for restoring service,” Governor Jenniffer Gonzalez said on X.
(Reporting by Ricardo Arduengo; additional reporting by Kylie Madry; Editing by Aida Pelaez-Fernandez and Anthony Esposito)
