More than a hundred people protested on Saturday, October 24, in front of the central offices of the LUMA Energy consortium in Santurce, San Juan, over electricity costs and grid failures. The protest was organized by Christian Delgado Ortiz, who said high energy costs and the economic crisis forced him to close his Bayamón car paint-correction and detailing business in September.
Outages damaged his equipment, and he plans to move to Florida with his children. The call began organically on social media earlier this week. Police guarded the offices, which LUMA shares with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA; AEE in Spanish), on Juan Ponce de León Avenue before the protest began.
Protester Luz Mojica said her bill doubled this month, from $24 to $50, though she has no air conditioning, washer or dryer. Residential customers began paying a record 33.86 cents per kilowatt hour in October, after the Energy Bureau accepted most of LUMA’s adjustment request on September 30, based on fuel costs reported by Genera PR.
In a written statement, LUMA said it does not buy fuel, generate electricity or approve rate increases, and said it respects the protesters’ freedom of expression. LUMA’s latest quarterly report to the Energy Bureau shows 31,150 customers requested payment plans in January, rising to 48,189 in September, about 3% of its roughly 1.5 million customers.
Of the September requests, 47,621 were residential. Ángel Figueroa Jaramillo, president of the electric and irrigation industry workers’ union, said the budget and base rate increases amount to five cents more per kWh than under the public system.