Time to turn on Puerto Rico’s untapped virtual power plant

Source: Javier Rúa-Jovet & Roy Torbert · ENERGY MONITOR· | October 28, 2021

Major power outages could be avoided by tapping into a distributed network of thousands of solar-charged batteries across the territory, but companies and customers need financial incentives to support the grid.

Source: Puerto Rico boasts more than 30,000 solar systems, and that number grows by more than a thousand every month. (Photo courtesy of the Puerto Rico Department of Economic Development and Commerce)

Major power outages across Puerto Rico have surged in recent months, despite the island being spared from any hurricanes this year. Last month, following the resignations of the executive director and chairman of the board of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), the power company declared a state of emergency due to multiple power plant failures from the oldest, most poorly maintained fleet of fossil fuel generators under the US flag.

Widespread rolling blackouts remain an imminent threat to the health, safety and economic well-being of the territory’s nearly 3.5 million residents.

There were months of suffering in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria destroyed much of its power grid in 2017: polluting and noisy generators, scarce fuel, hospitals closed and darkness that continued for many months. Thousands of lives were lost during the longest blackout in US history, with the poorest and the elderly hit hardest. In part due to the Puerto Rican Commonwealth’s non-voting status as a territory of the US, infrastructure has long been deficient and vulnerable, and extreme weather has made that liability a deadly one.