Nation/World

Storm-ravaged Puerto Rico hit by island-wide power blackout

Puerto Rico's power company said it had restored power to over 1.1 million homes and businesses by Thursday morning after a transmission line failure cut service to almost all of the island's 3.4 million residents the day before.

The Puerto Rican Electric Power Authority, known as PREPA, was working to restore power to the less than 30 percent of customers in the U.S. territory still without power after Wednesday morning's blackout.

The power line failure in southern Puerto Rico was the latest in a string of operational and political headaches for the bankrupt, storm-ravaged power utility.

The utility has struggled to escape the headlines since Hurricane Maria wiped out power to all of Puerto Rico on Sept. 20.

Maria, the worst storm to hit the island in 90 years, devastated Puerto Rico's electrical grid, and thousands were still without power at the time of Wednesday's blackout.

Puerto Rico's smaller islands of Culebra and Vieques, as well as a pair of microgrids on the main island, were unaffected.

"This is another example of why Puerto Rico's energy infrastructure needs to incorporate new forms of power," Gov. Ricardo Rossello said on Twitter, adding that he is "committed" to reforms to transform the island's energy sector.

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Separately on Wednesday, the island's federally appointed financial oversight board unveiled a framework for reform that breaks with Rossello's vision, pushing pension cuts and labor reforms while hinting at layoffs.

PREPA has suffered several blackouts since Maria and has been in bankruptcy since last July, owing some $9 billion to mutual funds, hedge funds and other investors.

In October, Rossello canceled a $300 million contract awarded by PREPA to a tiny Montana-based company amid political backlash.

Three months later, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers discovered undistributed hurricane relief materials in a PREPA warehouse, sparking Rossello to order a separate investigation.

A U.S. congressional committee in March announced its own probe into potential corruption at PREPA, including reports that some officials accepted bribes to restore power to exotic dance clubs ahead of schedule.

Rossello is planning to privatize PREPA over the next 18 months, as Puerto Rico navigates a $120 billion bankruptcy, the largest in U.S. government history.

In the short-term, though, the grid remains vulnerable ahead of a new hurricane season beginning this summer.

Falling revenues, a loss of staff and constant leadership turnover have contributed to an outdated fleet of equipment, which was exposed by Maria's winds of up to 155 miles per hour.

Compounding that, most of the island's generation is done in the south and trekked through miles of wires to the bulk of the population in the north.

"We need to have power to the north to avoid this kind of chain reaction every time we have a power problem," said Tomas Torres, executive director of the nonprofit Institute for Competitiveness and Sustainable Economy for Puerto Rico.

The latest outage came as Major League Baseball's Cleveland Indians and Minnesota Twins squared off in San Juan on Wednesday night, part of an effort by MLB to bring attention to and raise money for Puerto Rico.

San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, who has criticized PREPA and the U.S. response to the power restoration effort, said on Twitter that the city would bring in extra lights and security for the game, which was played as scheduled.

(Additional reporting by Scott DiSavino and Jessica Resnick-Ault)

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