LUMA

The outlook is grim. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has announced that its secretary will now personally review any grant or contract award exceeding $100,000 before the funds can be committed, the agency told the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo.

Verdict: True, but...

COR3, the agency in charge of recovery in Puerto Rico, holds FEMA responsible for excluding that multi-million-dollar expense because of the methodology it used to estimate the damage to the electrical system after Hurricanes Irma and María.

Seven years after the deaths caused by Hurricane María, the Puerto Rican government has yet to agree on a comprehensive plan to identify and mobilize electricity-dependent individuals during disasters like Tropical Storm Ernesto. The Governor now insists that such a registry must be created.

The CPI identified at least 34, out of 78 municipalities that were left completely in the dark due to the electrical system failures following Tropical Storm Ernesto.

The nearly $10 million difference for this expense is compounded by the fact that some facilities spent more for this line item due to prolonged breakdowns or unexpected repairs of electrical substations.

The area in the switchyard where the Central Costa Sur fire occurred, which caused the general blackout last Wednesday, should have been renovated four months ago, in December 2021, according to the original infrastructure plan through which the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) will access $10.7 billion in federal recovery funds. But, after LUMA’s […]

Influential people with privileged access steer the company that manages Puerto Rico’s electric power transmission and distribution system.

The obstacles to guaranteeing services to kidney patients are still there, as LUMA does not give the highest priority when restoring energy to dialysis centers, nor has a patient registry or a comprehensive plan been created to serve the population with the most deaths after Hurricane María.

The corporation’s first reliability report confirms that it took almost twice as long to restore power to customers in its first quarter of operations, compared to the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority.

Little has been said about what will happen when LUMA Energy starts managing part of the electric power system, which is an essential service.  Will the contracts signed be published? Will the meetings and minutes of such meetings in which LUMA participates be public? Will we know how public money is spent by the company? […]