Luma Energy, Puerto Rico’s privately owned power company, announced they would suspend $65 million worth of maintenance projects due to “budget constraints.” This after the island faced a blackout earlier this month leaving over 340,000 people without power.
Correction: 00:05 The original caption to this video report overstated the number of Puerto Rico residents who were without power.
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48 Comments
They charge us for truck maintenance truck driving work you name it we get billed and if they spend millions on something that breaks they will raise our bill. We get a 30 dollar bill but inreality its 12 to 20 and the rest is extra charge Energy Fee means the component of the Contract Price allocated to pay for the fuel, including Governmental Charges, designated as the Energy Fee in Schedule 1 as adjusted from time to time due to changes in the delivered price of fuel.
Every time that LUMA Energy comes out and wants MORE money, power outages follow until the money that they want arrives. $93 million then another $40 million and 4 price hikes in 18 months and it’s still not enough
Just pure corruption. PR is in a situation that has been self inflicted. Poor residents of that beautiful island.
They keep electing the same thieves from the same two parties affiliated to the dems and reps, and wonder why it only gets worse every day in PR.
We just passed an infrastructure bill, therefore money from that bill needs to go to Puerto Rico to help them with their energy crisis. Everyone needs to contact Congress and demand that Puerto Rico be helped.
100,000 Light Poles upgraded to LED heads will
1) Improve lighting across the country and reduce night time crime.
2) Running 100,000 LED lamps will cut the energy demand so much that LUMA can shut down at least one diesel generator plant and save lots of cost, reducing their operating expenses.
3) LED heads on existing light poles will cut the wind load to a fraction of the existing high pressure sodium heads. LED's are much lighter and more aerodynamic – less stress and wind load in hurricane winds.
LUMA can not afford to walk away fro this cost savings. Cutting this project would amount to corporate malfeasance.
Come on people – this is low hanging fruit for all parties.
Puerto Ricans can not choose their electrical power distribution company, but they can choose how their energy is generated.
Smart property owners in the Caribbean buy the biggest and best solar and batteries to supply their home needs and sell the surplus into the grid. This way, their power supply is guaranteed and if they grid goes down – they loose a little bit of revenue. Or, they can run extension cords to their neighbors and help them out with their daytime surplus.
Look there are trees shrubs all over power lines….luma has been here for over 2 yrs …Puerto Rico is NOT a big island….at night they lower the voltage its 100 dgs here almost every day .This is Terrible.
Blah blah Luma 🤦🏻♀️ . USA needs to step in. USA is ready to collect tho 😔. 🇵🇷 together we stand!!!!
LUMA are a whole bunch of incompetents… How about another major power company from the states join a bidding process..? C’mon Duke!
Fix it stop playing games already
$1500 generator? I have a generator exactly like the yellow portable Champion shown in this piece. I paid $600 for it. It will run a window AC, refrigerator, some lights a tv and internet. It will run for 11 to 12 hours on one tank of gas. I surely hope that small generator is not $1500 in Puerto Rico.
It has gotten better since luma despite the price spike complaints, but there is so much to get up to date. I'd go solar if I had a house
Something major will happen for us puerto ricans you will see. Just like my grand grand father Pedro Albizzo Campos. We will team up again and make sure we become the Island of Puerto Rico 🇵🇷 and be FREEEE
Bad bunny help your people.
the president of the Economic Development and Energy Commission, Rep. Luis Raúl Torres Cruz (PPD-Hato Rey), said that LUMA had reported $17 million in costs to pay for lobbyists in the Puerto Rican legislature. But Speaker of the House Rafael “Tatito” Hernández Montañez (PPD-Dorado) indicated that no such lobbyists had been registered with the legislature. And the CEO makes 1.1 Million dollars a year meanwhile 300k people are without power.. politicians are at play.
Puerto Rico needs to just vote to be a state already and then the government needs to step in and regulate the electrical grid and the company. And while we’re on the topic public utilities should be regulated the regulation and skyrocketing profit is what’s leading to this mess anywhere it’s happening. These companies that run public utilities are putting profits over service and enough is enough.
That’s why you never do business with gays
Make PR a state already or give them independence.
Los políticos de aquí son muy corruptos y se roban hasta los clavos de la cruz si tienen valor muy lamentable y vergonzoso .
Pay attention… This is the proverbial Canary in a coal mine.
It’s insane
People in PR were able to purchase generators when they got the money for the debt relief instead they spent on other things. They know we are a island that are hit by storms and hurricanes in my opinion everybody should have been able to purchase one.
Digno ejemplo del abuso en una COLONIA TOTALMENTE CORRUPTA,donde los politicos son los culpables y los puertorriqueños que les siguen el juego debido a lo idiotisados que estan,la ignorancia los está destruyendo…😢😢😢😢
The governor urges the individual installation of solar panels, 1st it is not economic 2nd the excessive installation of photovoltaic panels in the residences go close to a thousand megawatts and that same VOLTAJE is entering the grid overloading the voltage of the transformers in the different sub-stations until they are burned. There's no planning. PR no longer enjoys drinking water and electricity 24/7 365 days a year. Puerto Rico submerged.
We need to offer them statehood
These CEOs are sadistic. WE ARE REAL PEOPLE NOT JUST NUMBERS. VIVA PUERTO RICO
Reminds me of when the government of Puerto stole and hid all of Trump’s emergency aids in warehouses.😊
The island is in shambles, that’s why we keep leaving and locals ask themselves why though. The population will keep decreasing and younger generations will keep fleeing elsewhere cause the reality is, Puerto Rico is just not it.
REMEMBER WHEN tRUMP WAS PRESIDENT AND HE WAS TOSSING PAPER TOWEL ROLLS AND PROMISED TO FIX PUERTO RICO ☝🏿🧐🇺🇸
Theres is no fixing this island the corruption and money grabbing is out of control and its deeply rooted. Theres only one way of fixing it and its a full reset. If this keeps up I wouldn't doubt if it would end like Haiti in a civil war.
Fuera luma
That's a sh!ty thing to do. And of course their reply? Basically passing the buck. Disgraceful in this day and age.
JFC. Coming up on 7 years since Maria and Puerto Rico still doesn't have reliable power. Making hospitals 100% energy independent should have been the priority. Geezus. How does EVERYBODY drop the ball on the most obvious critical need???
LUMA is not an American company. In fact they are a Canadian company..
Puerto Pobre 🤷♂️
The problem here in Puerto Rico is that LA junta de supervision fiscal that was appointed by the federal government want this company no matter they do the job or not. The feds are responsible for what is happening here and they don't care.
This is a tactic to remove the poor and sell it to the rich. The next hawaii
Luma is insecurity, inestability, high costs & the worst service…we're kidnaped by an abusive private monopoly..😥..Help!!
After Luma take control of our power grid, blackouts and voltage surge has been part of our daily basis and every day are more and more. Our appliances are getting damaged and they don't take responsibilty because they don't want and in a simple way to explain; they have some kind of immunity on a lot of things because this was a weird hiring from beggining. The actual governor Pedro Pierluisi and their political party sign a contract with them that everybody knows that was very suspicious from the beggining and ask them and they don't care and sign that in a hurry without the proper process of giving public access to people and news. They recently transport a transformer inside the island and charge $4 million for this transport in a small island. A few years ago another transformed was transported from the states to the island for less than half the price and they are doing whatever they want with fema restoration funds for the island and charging millions and millions of dollars and the power grid in the island is in the worst moment ever. People are having to close their own business, thousands of chickens dying in farms, food, appliances and a lot more things getting damaged and nobody seems to care, they keep saying excuses and here things are getting worse everyday.
This is why we shouldn't privatize essential utilities.
Maybe they should just convert to Judaism if they want more aid
Maybe just maybe if they wouls want to become a state…..
Take a lesson from Tokelau – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIh4_qAdOfI
Sounds like real estate in Puerto Rico is going to be loosing value. A home when house generator or even a decent portable one is a quick solution until the utility and government can get their collective acts together. If they never do, I would not be surprised, Puerto Rico is barely on most mainlanders radar. It's a red headed stepchild like American Samoa, Guam, or the Northern Mariana Islands.
6 years after good job US no wonder they want to leave
Call it what it is Puerto Rico is a US territory everybody born there is a US citizen, but guess what it has no congressional representation. It has no senate representation and strangely enough US citizens living in Puerto Rico cannot vote for President of the United States. The territory of Puerto Rico has 0 electoral college votes so when the federal government has to take care of citizens of Puerto Rico or any other US territory, they end up dead last on the list because they can’t cast any ballots for nationally elected officials.
You would think that members of Congress all members of Congress would recognize something is wrong here but no, they don’t
Too much corruption