San Juan, PR – January 25, 2023 – The Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico today issued the following statement:
Puerto Rico needs and deserves more reliable, more affordable, and cleaner energy. Puerto Rico’s energy sector transformation rests partly on transitioning the management of PREPA’s existing power plants to a private operator, which will also assume responsibility for environmental compliance, safety, and decommissioning old plants.
Following a multi-year competitive bidding process to attract and identify qualified candidates to manage PREPA’s electric generation operations, the Puerto Rico Public Private Partnerships Authority (P3A) and PREPA selected Genera PR LLC to operate and maintain legacy power plants. The Oversight Board reviewed the proposed Thermal Generation Facilities Operation and Maintenance Agreement with Genera in accordance with PROMESA.
The proposed agreement with Genera is a key element of Puerto Rico’s energy transformation defined in the Fiscal Plan, ensuring a reliable and cleaner source of power while Puerto Rico moves towards the renewable energy goals defined by Puerto Rico’s Act 17-2019.
The Oversight Board supports those goals and approved the agreement.
Decades of mismanagement and neglect have left Puerto Rico with an expensive, inefficient, and dated energy system. The Fiscal Plans and Act 17 call for the unbundling of the electric system from a monopoly into one in which the power plants and grid are operated by different parties with private sector expertise. The people of Puerto Rico retain ownership of the grid and power plants and are empowered to hold the private operators accountable.