Puerto Rico Outages Knocks Power Out to 350,000 Customers During Heat Wave

Authorities in Puerto Rico said they were working to restore electricity after an outage struck the island during maintenance on the electricity grid, leaving about 350,000 customers without power during a heat wave.

The outage, which began late Wednesday, struck after Luma Energy, which transmits and distributes electricity in Puerto Rico, said it was carrying out planned maintenance work on power plants around the island.

Puerto Rico has experienced chronic problems with the electricity grid since 2017, when Hurricane Maria devastated the island. Since then, residents of the island have lived through countless outages, some that have lasted months and been tied to deaths. The island has struggled to restore power, and its economy has suffered significantly, sparking protests and turning the island’s frail power grid a political issue.

Gov. Pedro R. Pierluisi, who lost his bid for a second term last week, criticized the outage late Wednesday, condemning the power companies’ “lack of sense of urgency” in addressing the problems with the island’s aging power grid that he said had been going on for weeks.

An excessive heat watch was active for many of the areas affected by the outage, including San Juan, the capital, as the National Weather Service warned of the risk of heat stroke. Customers lost power in San Juan, the metropolitan area of Carguas and some areas in the northeast of Puerto Rico, Luma Energy said early Thursday.

Luna Energy said at around 9:40 p.m. that it was investigating the outage, which it said was linked to disturbances in transmission lines. The company said at 12:20 a.m. that efforts to restore service was expected to continue throughout the night, involving local officials and Genera PR, which oversees Puerto Rico’s electricity generation.