Puerto Rico approves electricity rate increase weeks after massive blackout
Puerto Rico approves electricity rate increase weeks after massive blackout
Puerto Ricans have been hit with a 4.6% increase in electricity rates increase through September
ByCORAL MURPHY MARCOS Associated Press
July 1, 2024, 10:53 AM
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Puerto Ricans were hit Monday with a 4.6% increase in electricity rates through September, in a blow to 3.2 million people who struggle with chronic power outages as the U.S. territory’s grid keeps deteriorating.
For clients who consume 800 kilowatt hours, the new rate will be 23.77 cents per kwh, compared with the previous 22.72 cents, according to Puerto Rico’s Energy Bureau. That's 41% more than the average U.S. electricity rate, which is 16.88 cents per kwh, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The increase will affect 1.5 million households connected to the grid, which continues to crumble amid a lack of maintenance following Hurricane Maria in 2017. In June, a massive blackout left over 340,000 customers in San Juan and nearby cities without power during a heat wave.
The Energy Bureau said the new rates were because of higher fuel costs. The bureau's president, Edison Avilés Deliz, said the agency had struck a balance between responsible management and excessive prices for the consumer.
The hike comes after Luma Energy, the private company that took over from Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority in 2021, said it would suspend $65 million worth of maintenance and improvement projects on the island.
The island’s power authority is currently undergoing bankruptcy proceedings through a debt-restructuring plan with the fiscal control board overseeing Puerto Rico’s finances. The electrical utility’s debt is the largest within the broader $73 billion bankruptcy case filed by the Puerto Rican government, following decades of financial mismanagement.
Luma’s expenses have faced heavy criticism from lawmakers and officials in the island’s power authority. In a letter to the federally appointed fiscal board last Thursday, Josué Colón, the executive director of the electrical utility, described Luma’s employee salaries as “exorbitant.”
Luma, a U.S. and Canadian joint venture, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.