Efforts to restore electricity in Puerto Rico have been largely successful, with 98.8% of customers regaining power by early Friday following a widespread outage earlier this week. More than 1.45 million customers had electricity restored within 48 hours of the outage’s onset, as reported by Luma Energy, which manages the island’s power transmission and distribution.
While the restoration process is nearing completion, Luma Energy noted that some customers may still experience temporary disruptions due to limited power generation. The outage, which began on Wednesday afternoon, was attributed to a failure in a transmission line that prompted generators across the island to shut down as a precaution.
Initially, the blackout also left over 400,000 customers without water. Authorities are investigating the outage’s cause, including whether faulty switches or overgrown vegetation contributed to the problem. Puerto Rico’s governor, Jenniffer González, indicated that she expects to receive a preliminary report on the findings in the coming days.
This incident marks the second major blackout to hit Puerto Rico in less than four months, with the previous one occurring on New Year’s Eve.