RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A breakdown at the Costa Sur power plant in the municipality of Guayanilla in southern Puerto Rico caused a blackout that left several cities on the island without electricity.
Luma Energy, the company responsible for electricity transmission and distribution in Puerto Rico, confirmed the situation in a press release.
“The power grid has suffered a massive island-wide outage, possibly caused by a circuit breaker failure at the Costa Sur Power Plant.
( There are reports of an issue with a power plant, and fires at two substations.)
The exact cause is unclear at this time. Luma teams are working to restore service as quickly as possible.
Given the size and scope of the outage, the restoration of power could take until tomorrow (Thursday),” the statement said.
In an update to the statement, Luma Energy said it has deployed personnel across the island “to restore substations.”
Specifically, they report that they continue to work to restore service in the southeast of the island (in Yabucoa), at the Palo Seco plant, and in Cambalache.
It is not yet known how many customers and municipalities in Puerto Rico have been affected by this blackout.
The Puerto Rico Electricity Authority, responsible for power generation, published a video on social media showing a fire at the Costa Sur power plant.
“A fault in the circuit breaker of Unit 5 of Costa Sur at 230 kV caused the failure of Units 5 and 6 of the power plant. The protection system of the electrical system has put out of service the rest of the units that generate electricity,” the statement said on Twitter.
On its Twitter account, the Puerto Rico Fire Department said that “they extinguished the fire that affected two substations at the Costa Sur Power Plant in Guayanilla.”