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Krista

Power is restored in Puerto Rico

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Puerto Rico's power company said Thursday it had restored power to all 1.43 million homes and businesses across the island that lost electricity when workers removing a fallen tower hit a high transmission line.

Hospitals, banks and the San Juan airport were given priority ahead of homes and businesses for the restoration of power.

Wednesday morning's blackout was the latest setback for the island of 3.4 million people that lost all power during Hurricane Maria in September.

Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority restored electricity to 1.43 million homes and businesses, or 97% its customers before the latest outage.

The power authority said heavy equipment workers triggered the outage when the fallen tower they were removing got too close to a high-power transmission line. The equipment was being operated by a subcontractor for Cobra Acquisitions.

The same subcontractor was also blamed for an outage last week to 870,000 customers triggered by a tree falling on a power line, according to Justo Gonzalez, deputy director of PREPA.

“This is all very worrisome, obviously, as we approach another hurricane season,” said Cathy Kunkel, an energy analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.  “The grid is so fragile and they’re just barely able to get the lights back on.”

The latest blackout prompted Gov. Ricardo Rossello to call on PREPA to cancel its contract with the subcontractor.

With a debt of $9 billion, PREPA filed for a form of bankruptcy last year. Rosselló is pushing a bill to privatize the power system. The island's legislature held public hearings this week.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2018/04/19/puerto-rico-power-restored-1-m-customers-after-latest-total-blackout/531566002/

 

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