Hurricane Fiona causes a general power outage

The Hurricane Fiona It caused a general power outage this afternoon and left 1.5 million subscribers without electricity new day Executive Director of the Electric Power Authority (PREPA), Joshua Columbus.

Minutes later, Governor Peter Pierluisi He has verified the information on his Facebook account.

LUMA Energy and the Electric Power Authority reported that as a result of the hurricane’s impact, the electrical system is currently out of service. The protocols have been activated according to the plans established to deal with this situation. Both LUMA and PREPA staff are energetic and ready to respond to the situation as soon as conditions permit.”Pierluisi said.

Colon said the blackout occurred shortly after 1:00 p.m., explaining that PREPA had “started” several rapid response generation units (“black start”) to reactivate the network as quickly as possible.

“The (transmission) lines were (out of service) and the whole network was cut off,” he said, referring to the 115,000 and 230,000-volt lines that take electricity from generating stations. These lines can fall out of service as a result of rain or come into contact with plants due to wind, among other reasons.

“We have already started in Palo Seco with the ‘Black Start’ units. We are with the start of the North.. Palo Seco and San Juan. There is already a unit in operation at Palo Seco,” He added, explaining that due to the lack of transmission lines, the factories were closed to protect themselves. In other words, blackouts are not due to a lack of generations.

According to Colon, when the blackout occurred, power demand was barely 500 megawatts, indicating that “many customers were already out of service.”

“We will start revitalizing our energies from the north. We are coordinating with the Energy Control Center (operated by LUMA Energy). He said.

The restoration will take several days

Just over an hour after the power outage, LUMA released a statement saying that as a result of bad weather, including Fiona’s 80mph winds, “The electrical system suffered from several interruptions in the transmission lines”Which contributed to the collapse of the service.

“The current weather conditions are very dangerous and hamper our ability to fully assess the situation. Given our active situation, field brigades have already been mobilized, and we will begin our restoration efforts as soon as the situation is safe,” the consortium said.

He added that “given the scale and scope of the power outages, as well as the effects of Hurricane Fiona, Full restoration of electrical service may take several days. We have the equipment, tools and resources to respond to this event.”

LUMA concluded by asking its customers for “support and patience.”