Former PREPA Director Zapata Calls Energy Czar Colón’s Silence on Power Expectations Irregularities Arbitrary
Published Oct 18, 2026, 3:39 PM ASTvia El Nuevo Día
Why this matters: The dispute touches PREPA’s power generation contracting oversight, a matter central to the reliability and cost of the grid Puerto Rico households and businesses depend on.
Mary Carmen Zapata, former executive director of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA (AEE), or PREPA by its Spanish acronym), rebutted Energy Czar Josué Colón over the Power Expectations agreement. She called Colón’s decision not to alert her to the first signs of irregularities surrounding the agreement "arbitrary." In her view, the decision stemmed from the perception that raising concerns would have halted the power generation project while allegations against the contractor were being investigated.
Those allegations later escalated to claims of fraud. Zapata also denied failures by PREPA in the Power Expectations contract.
In context (787daily, from public data)
0.2%of LUMA customers without power
42-day average 0.3% · worst 1.8%, Sep 30
LUMA's portal showed 0.2% of customers out at 6:06 AM AST on Oct 18, 2026. Across the 42 days 787daily has tracked it, the daily average is 0.3% and the worst was 1.8% on Sep 30, 2026.
Worst of LUMA's five full years, up from 26.3 hours the year before
Customers averaged 28.4 hours without power in the fiscal year that ended in June 2026, the worst of the five full years LUMA has run the grid and up from 26.3 hours the year before.
LUMA operates the transmission and distribution system.