A power outage has left nearly 620,000 people in Puerto Rico without electricity for more than 24 hours. The blackout, which occurred when the island’s power plants were knocked out of service, affected over 1.4 million customers.
Luma Energy, the electricity distributor, has restored power to around 850,000 customers, or 57.9% of its customer base. In San Juan, 84% of Luma customers are back online, while only 27% in Ponce have had their electricity restored.
The outage began on Wednesday at approximately 12:40 p.m. EDT and the cause is still unknown. Puerto Rico’s Governor has stated that it will take at least three days to determine what caused the blackout.
This is not an isolated incident for Puerto Rico, as the island has faced chronic power outages in the past, including a New Year’s Eve blackout last year and Hurricane Irma and Maria in 2017, which left some without power for nearly a year.
The federal government has pledged support to help restore essential services. The airport in San Juan is currently operating normally after power was restored.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/gennacontino/2025/04/17/nearly-half-of-puerto-rico-still-without-power-after-all-its-power-plants-failed