Power Remains Out for Nearly Half a Million Customers in Puerto Rico

A day after an islandwide power failure struck Puerto Rico, nearly half a million customers remained in the dark.

More than 470,000 customers were still without electricity, out of a total of more than 1.5 million customers, according to poweroutage.us.

The islandwide loss of power was frustrating for Puerto Rico's 3.2 million people. Luma, a Canadian-American consortium, took over Puerto Rico's public utility last June with a pledge to reduce the number of power failures.

Luma said in an announcement on Thursday that the energy grid has suffered a massive island wide outage, possibly caused by a failed circuit breaker at the Costa Sur power plant.

There was a fire at one of the power substations on the southeastern coast. The cause of the power failure occurred after 8 pm. Luma said in a statement Thursday that Eastern time on Wednesday remained under investigation. There was damage to the facility.

The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority showed an image of the charred substation on Thursday, showing some of its components to be completely blackened.

Luma is not in a position to give an estimate of full restoration at this time. Efforts to restore power would continue into Friday.

Some government agencies paused their usual operations on Thursday due to the cancellation of public school. Around 10 percent of the 182,000 water and sewer customers were without water on Thursday.

People are urged to remain calm and wait for official updates from government agencies and Luma.

The vulnerability of the power grid was exposed when Hurricane Maria knocked out electricity across Puerto Rico. Some residents were without electricity for a long time.

One time a cat and an iguana were blamed for power failures, according to The Associated Press.

Last year, Puerto Rico privatized its electrical grid and awarded Luma a 15-year contract with an annual fee of $115 million to take over transmission and distribution operations from the bankrupt PREPA. The public utility is involved in generating electricity.

Company officials said that they were prepared to handle emergencies when Luma took over. Widespread power cuts have lasted longer than under PREPA.

The speaker of Puerto Rico's House of Representatives said that a public corporation administered by Puerto Rican providers could work more effectively than the current energy system.

She contributed reporting.