Genera PR vice president of Governmental and Public Affairs Iván Báez said the company bears total responsibility for a power outage this week in Puerto Rico that affected about 160,000 people, speaking on Normando en la Mañana. "The responsibility is 100% Genera’s. We are going to be transparent," he said.
The responsibility is 100% Genera's. We are going to be transparent,
Báez described a chain of technical failures: the Costa Sur 5 unit had been out for more than two and a half weeks over a problem with its main transformer, removing 400 megawatts from the system. Two days earlier, the San Juan 5 unit had to be taken out of service by force, and another unit had to cut its output from 210 to 90 megawatts because of a risk with a part, causing a generation shortfall.
Genera’s critical repairs team, working 24/7, returned Costa Sur 5 to service the day before. Báez attributed the failures to equipment decades old, saying similar events could have happened under the former Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA; AEE in Spanish), and that there is now more visibility through social media and live customer reports.
He confirmed the Energy Bureau cut much of the maintenance facilities budget, saying the bureau must explain that. For the long term, Genera is moving about $2.8 billion in FEMA-funded projects; once new batteries operate, he said, 90% of load relief outages would disappear. The Vega Baja project should be in commissioning by the end of next year’s first quarter, while Costa Sur and Aguirre would take about a year more.
On claims that seven turbines were damaged by lack of maintenance, he said the used Middle East units installed under an Army Corps of Engineers emergency mission received major maintenance and intensive use.