This column was originally published in Spanish by El Vocero on November 18, 2024
Today, the solar industry association SESA meets to discuss renewable energy as a part of Puerto Rico’s future. It is an important issue and, as Executive Director of the Financial Oversight and Management Board, I am glad SESA supports our collective goal to move Puerto Rico’s energy transformation forward.
The Oversight Board has supported and continues to support the push into renewable energy. We support rooftop solar and large-scale solar facilities as one element of the critical transformation of the entire energy system. Solar, of course, isn’t the only element of this monumental transformation. Solar won’t fix the damage done from PREPA’s previous mismanagement and solar alone won’t fix our grid. We must rebuild a grid that fits Puerto Rico’s future.
Today, less than 10% of Puerto Rico’s energy is generated with renewable energy. Burning coal will end in 2028, shutting off 20% off current energy generation. We must not neglect solutions that provide Puerto Rico’s families and businesses with electricity today while we invest in solar to power Puerto Rico in a bigger way tomorrow.
PREPA did not properly maintain the energy grid which resulted in an unreliable system that went bankrupt. Working with the Government, we broke up the failing PREPA and strengthened the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau, two critical steps to take politics out of the energy system.
We are opposed to political or special interest interference with the decisions of an Independent Energy Bureau. We are firmly opposed to repeating the mistakes that set the deterioration of the electric system in motion decades ago.
The transformation is not done. Electricity is not yet reliable. Improving the grid is a condition precedent to everything else the Government and Oversight Board must accomplish to improve the quality of life in Puerto Rico and enable sustainable economic growth.
The current pace is not acceptable. And the people of Puerto Rico have a right to be upset with the current pace. In 2017 the Oversight Board attempted to take a more actively manage the Energy Transformation process, unfortunately the Government at the time was able to stop this progress through litigation. Today, I too am not satisfied with where we are. I believe with effective leadership, operations management, prioritizations and support from the bureaucracy, improvements can happen faster.
Recently, the Oversight Board has been taking a much more active role in helping to remove roadblocks. We have no desire to micromanage the process, but we also have a responsibility to do whatever we can to move along the money necessary to improve the grid. We are bringing together the Government, LUMA and Genera, COR3 and the P3 Authority, the Energy Bureau, FEMA and the U.S. Department of Energy. We will continue to meet to come up with solutions to solve obstacle after obstacle.
The Oversight Board will also take a more proactive role in the process of procuring large scale green energy projects. The Oversight Board will not only review contracts but help holding parties accountable for meeting the agreed-upon deadlines so we all succeed in not only promising, but building solar as quickly as possible.
Together, we must push investments in the grid, push renewables, maintain existing power plans until we can replace them, and ensure that the Energy Bureau remains free from political or special interest influence to create a resilient, reliable electric system that will not only keep the lights turn on when we get home but propel Puerto Rico into prosperity.
