https://spectrum.ieee.org/puerto-rico-solar-microgrids
"When power went out across all of Puerto Rico on 16 April, a lot of the lights
in the town of Adjuntas stayed on. There, nestled in the mountains on the
midwestern side of the island, a combination of experimental microgrids, solar
panels, and storage kept power on for many businesses and residents. The rest
of the island waited over 24 hours, and in some cases longer, for electricity
to be restored.
The blackout was the latest in a series of power interruptions that have come
to define Puerto Rico’s aging electrical grid. Vegetation was to blame for
April’s blackout, according to LUMA Energy, the private company that manages
the island’s grid. A faulty old cable triggered the near total blackout on New
Year’s Eve 2024, the company said. Tropical storm Ernesto’s strong winds
knocked out half of the island’s power in August 2024.
The problems are the result of decades of mismanagement and disinvestment in
the island’s grid infrastructure. Neglecting to keep up with regular
maintenance and failing to meet increasing demand for power generation have
contributed to the disarray. The long-standing issues set the stage for the
grid to be crushed in 2017 by Hurricane Maria, the United States’ second
deadliest, which plunged Puerto Rico into months-long darkness and claimed
nearly 3,000 lives.
After that hurricane, the island’s state-run utility, Puerto Rico Electric
Power Authority (PREPA), contracted with private entities for power generation,
transmission, and distribution in the hopes of fixing the grid. Over $20
billion in U.S. federal disaster relief was awarded by the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) to improve the grid and boost its resilience. Yet
bureaucratic red tape and politics in Puerto Rico and on the U.S. mainland have
hindered much of that money from being spent.
“It’s a blame game, and there’s too many cooks in the kitchen,” says Javier
Rúa-Jovet, a former Puerto Rican regulator who is now chief policy officer at
the Solar and Energy Storage Association of Puerto Rico."
Via Esther Schindler.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics