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January 4, 2025

Anna Murray 

On New Year's Eve, Puerto Rico had an almost island-wide blackout. Approximately 90% of nearly 1.5 million people had no electricity.

According to Josue Colon, CEO of the Puerto Rico Power Authority (PREPA), a malfunction in the transmission and distribution system set off a chain of events that forced all generating units to go down.

Telemundo, an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network, reported that a breakdown in an underground power line at the Costa Sur plant caused the initial blackout on December 31. LUMA, Puerto Rico’s electric power transmission and distribution system operator, President and CEO Juan Saca wrote in one of his statements that the event's root cause was still under investigation.