Topline
The entire island of Puerto Rico lost electricity Wednesday afternoon when the island’s power plants were knocked out of service, according to Luma Energy, which distributes electricity in Puerto Rico, the latest breakdown of the territory’s faulty electric grid.
SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO: The Condado tourist zone in San Juan awoke to a general island power outage … More
Key Facts
The outage began at approximately 12:40 p.m. EDT, according to Luma’s social media, for reasons not immediately clear.
The blackout affected more than 1.4 million customers in Puerto Rico, The New York Times reported.
As of 5 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Luma’s site to check the status of service said it was “experiencing issues connecting to our systems.”
The Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration said in a post that it is working with the White House and other federal agencies to “ensure that Puerto Rico receives the necessary support and that all essential services are restored as quickly and safely as possible.”
Luma’s website showed a third of customers had electricity more than an hour after the initial blackout—however, the Times, citing a Luma spokesman, reported it was unlikely any customers had electricity because none of the power plants were working.
Key Background
Puerto Rico has faced chronic power outages in the past, including a New Year’s Eve blackout last year that left almost the entire island without electricity. In 2017, Hurricanes Irma and Maria caused the country’s electric grid to collapse, leaving some without power for nearly a year, according to the Department of Energy. In 2019, the territory passed the Puerto Rico Energy Public Policy Act, which includes a goal for the island to fix its electricity woes by 2050 – though progress has been slow.
Is The San Juan Airport Open?
Flights from Luis Muñoz Marín Airport, located near San Juan, were operating normally as of 1:20 p.m. EDT, according to a post from the airport’s X account, which also said the airport is running on generators.
Further Reading
Zoom Outage: More Than 65,000 Users Report Issues (Forbes)
Spotify Says Servers Are ‘All Clear’ After Thousands Reported Outage (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/gennacontino/2025/04/16/power-outage-causes-blackout-across-all-of-puerto-rico/