Legalectric

Puerto Rico is in the dark today. That’s the Luma “load shed” map, above, and here’s a chart from the Luna site about outages.

UPDATE as of 1/1/2025 at 3:24 pm:

Granted this is distribution, not transmission, but this AP photo, from the article linked below, shows the hornets’ nest we’re dealing with in Puerto Rico:

I remember during the Arrowhead Transmission Project hearing in Wisconsin (the EIS is in the Library of Congress?!?) the repeated threats that if it was not permitted and built, we’ll freeze in an incubator without a job… or was it we’ll die of heatstroke on a respirator… whatever. The histrionics were extreme, and so unnecessary, as necessary as that transmission project.

Puerto Rico is another story. The Puerto Rican electrical system sucked before Hurricane Maria in 2017, and afterward, it was pretty much non-existent. Paper towels were insufficient.

Supposedly, triggering this outage was an underground cable that faulted and put the whole island in the dark. From the AP article linked below:

AP: Nearly all of Puerto Rico is without power on New Year’s Eve

How is it that “failure of an underground power line,” a singular power line, can black out the entire island? Two things come to mind… 1) where’s the redundancy; and 2) underground transmission is far more reliable than above ground; oh, make that three, 3) transmission is generally more reliable than distribution, transmission outages are VERY RARE.

Puerto Rico is “serviced” by Luma and Genera PR. Here’s Luma HQ looming:

And here’s Genera PR’s generation:

And real time generation details HERE:

So does this mean what I think it does??? No generation?

And more on that same page:

Oh my! And even more:

And over those corporations is the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, PREPA. Luma and Genera PR were granted authority and responsibility to operate by PREPA. For sure there’s enough responsibility to go around, but effectiveness and reliability are missing. There’s nominal power to the people.

What has PREPA done? Here’s info on the PREPA workplan for Puerto Rico’s Electric Power and Distribution System.

You can find a massive amount if info including Data Requests, Compliance, RFPs, Evaluations at the above Puerto Rico’s Electric Power and Distribution System page.

Something tells me that “Completed June 2020” isn’t quite accurate. Why? Well, that’s the Luma “load shed” map above. Seven plus YEARS after the hurricane, they’re still having problems. Today, most of Puerto Rico in the dark. For Luma, at 3:00 p.m. CST, 13.2% of customers have electricity, and how many people per “customer” is that?

Here’s an interesting twist at https://poweroutage.us/area/state/puerto%20rico – they were asked/directed NOT to report outages:

Did Puerto Rico not get a boost from the big Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA)?

In prepping for the PPSA Annual Hearing , I realized that I’d forgotten to post the 2010 NERC Reliability Assessment.  How can that be?  NERC, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, has been issuing these for over a decade, and they have the greatest little gems, a must read that comes out usually in October.

1989 – Quebec Geomagnetic Disturbance

SO, making up for lost time, here it is:

2010 NERC Reliability Assessment – Part 1

2010 NERC Reliability Assessment – Part 2

2010 NERC Reliability Assessment – Part 3

And here’s what I find to be the best part of this — the charts that show the reserve margins going out of sight!

Summer 2010 shows that we’re comfortable, plenty of electricity to go around.  But wait, check the 2014 and 2019 projections — in 2019, where we “need” a 15% reserve margin, we have:

Anticipated Reserve Margin – 16.3%

Prospective Reserve Margin – 16.3%

Adjusted Potential Reserve Margin – 20.3%

Potential Reserve Margin – 28.0%

OK, so then let’s look at the East Coast for 2019:

New York

Anticipated Reserve Margin – 23.9%

Prospective Reserve Margin – 23.9%

Adjusted Potential Reserve Margin – 29.8%

Potential Reserve Margin – 53.3%

RFC– includes much of PJM – New Jersey, Delaware, and heading west

Anticipated Reserve Margin – 23.0%

Prospective Reserve Margin – 27.9%

Adjusted Potential Reserve Margin – 30.8%

Potential Reserve Margin – 37.2%

And again, the purpose of all this transmission build-out becomes clear — there’s too much electricity and they need a way to get it from here to there, anywhere to be able to sell it.

Click these charts below for a bigger view.

Estimated 2010 Summer Demand, Resources, and Reserve Margins:

Estimated 2014 Summer Demand, Resources, and Reserve Margins:

Estimated 2019 Summer Demand, Resources, and Reserve Margins: