Outraged over constant blackouts and increases in the price of electricity, over 4,000 protesters marched in San Juan, Puerto Rico, calling for an end to the contract the local government signed with LUMA Energy that privatized part of the island’s electrical grid.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Fed up with rolling blackouts and the rising price of electricity, Puerto Ricans continue to hit the streets in protest against the Puerto Rican government’s contract with LUMA Energy while calling for the resignation of Gov. Pedro Pierluisi and the end of the Financial Oversight and Management Board of Puerto Rico (FOMBPR).

On Monday, U.S. Energy Sec. Jennifer Granholm announced a $453.3 million commitment to finance rooftop solar panels and battery systems for Puerto Rico’s most vulnerable communities.

With rising temperatures and the increasing threat of tropical storms due to climate change menacing Puerto Rico, many fear the islands’ access to electrical power will only worsen under privatization.

As Puerto Rico moves toward its stated goal of 100 percent renewable energy by 2050, there are still gigantic leaps that need to be taken if it plans to reach that target date, though it is becoming increasingly unlikely that such monumental steps will be taken.

On Wednesday Gov. Pedro Pierluisi announced that Genera PR will officially take over the remains of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority and finish privatizing electrical generation on the archipelago.

On the same day it was set to expire, the Puerto Rico Public-Private Alliances granted LUMA Energy an extension of its provisional contract that will only end once the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s debt restructuring is completed.

Three days before LUMA Energy’s contract is set to expire, the Public-Private Partnerships Authority requested authorization to extend LUMA’s provisional contract until the debt restructuring process for the publicly owned Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority is finalized.

Teachers and electrical workers in Puerto Rico are calling for protests outside schools on November 30, the day that LUMA Energy’s contract is set to expire, in hopes that the government cancels the company’s impending 15-year contract.

Puerto Rican legislators from New York and local activist groups joined forces on Thursday to repudiate the Puerto Rican government’s contract with LUMA Energy and ask Gov. Pedro Pierluisi not to grant the company control over the archipelago’s electrical system for the next 15 years.

On Tuesday, Sunrun, the largest rooftop solar installer in the U.S., announced a deal with Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority to launch the island’s first “virtual” power plant to help reduce power bills and offer a backup energy source.

LUMA Energy, the U.S.-Canadian company that manages Puerto Rico’s power system, won its government contract and remains in place — despite chronic outages — due to corruption within the island’s two main political parties.

After a string of blackouts that left many without electricity throughout August, Puerto Ricans came together on Thursday to protest LUMA Energy and Gov. Pedro Pierluisi in Old San Juan. The protest ended with the streets thick with tear gas and multiple journalists and protesters wounded by police.

As they say, “denial is not a river in Egypt.” Someone needs to share this with Puerto Rico House Speaker Rafael “Tatito” Hernández of the Popular Democratic Party (PPD, in Spanish). After 400,000 of the main island’s residents lost electrical power on April 6, Hernández said that the Puerto Rico Electrical Power Authority (PREPA) should […]

Following a massive fire at Costa Sur Power Plant and the ensuing island-wide blackout that lasted multiple days, the firefighters union has called on the government to cancel its contract with LUMA Energy.

After a warrant was issued last week for the arrest of LUMA CEO Wayne Stensby, the energy company finally gave Puerto Rican legislators documents containing information about employee salaries and communications between Stensby and politicians.

One way that environmental activist Ruth Santiago and some of her neighbors in the Jobos Bay area have sought to call attention to the injustices they face is in the documentary ‘The Power of the People: A Collective Struggle for Life and the Environment’

El primer informe de confiabilidad que entregó la compañía confirma que tardó casi el doble del tiempo en restaurar la luz a los clientes en su primer trimestre de operaciones, en comparación con la Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica.

“It is imperative that the federal government heeds the calling of civil society organizations that have been denouncing the terrible negotiation that has taken place in this contract,” said Dr. Adi Martínez-Román, Director of Operations of the UPR Resiliency Law Center.

In the early hours of the morning on June 1, protesters began setting up encampments in front of the gates of the newly christened LUMA Energy warehouses and facilities in a bid to not let the workers access their tools

The outsourcing of companies that come mainly from the US has been the norm in the first six months of billing after the agreement to privatize Puerto Rico’s electricity grid.