Canceling Puerto Rico’s contract with New Fortress Energy immediately would mean assuming between $180 million and $200 million in additional fuel costs a year, former Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA (AEE); PREPA) executive director Ricardo Ramos said in an interview with Normando en la Mañana. Ramos said the contract was signed in 2018 because in 2007 Puerto Rico had no natural gas in San Juan and the plants ran on diesel.
At that time, he said, the island paid roughly one to one and a half cents more on its rate, spending about $200 million. Since New Fortress built the terminal with its own investment, he said, PREPA had been saving roughly $180 million to $200 million a year without major consequences. Ramos said his comments were not a defense of the company: "New Fortress está actuando mal y hay que hacer algo con el contrato, pero tenemos que tener cuidado cuando hablamos de cancelaciones," he said, adding that New Fortress is acting badly and something must be done with the contract but that cancellations require care.
He attributed the company’s erratic behavior to the style of its main executive, Wesley Edens, calling him a risk-taker who asks forgiveness instead of permission and who now behaves "prácticamente como un pirata" with the terminal. Instead of immediate cancellation, Ramos proposed a middle ground: negotiate greater supply guarantees, ensure others can enter if available, and eventually cancel once an alternative exists.
He said the structural solution already exists: a gas pipeline connecting the gas available in the south of the island, at EcoEléctrica’s terminal, to the metropolitan-area plants. He ruled out truck transport as a viable substitute.