A gas turbine at the Costa Sur power plant failed unexpectedly Friday afternoon, forcing Puerto Rico’s grid operator to cut power to more than 126,000 customers across the island, including thousands in the San Juan area.
Genera PR, which operates the plant, said Unit 5 at Costa Sur went offline suddenly Friday. LUMA Energy, which manages transmission and distribution, said the sudden loss of generation forced it to begin load shedding — rolling power cuts intended to keep the broader grid stable when supply falls short of demand.
At its peak, LUMA’s own outage tracker showed 126,781 customers without service, though the company said 883 of those were unrelated planned outages. Both companies said crews were working to restore the unit and stabilize the system; by Friday evening, LUMA reported that most customers had power back.
San Juan customers affected
The San Juan region was among the areas that lost power during the event. LUMA has not published a public breakdown of exactly how many San Juan customers were affected at peak.
The failure comes a day after a new Puerto Rico Energy Bureau filing revealed that six of Genera’s ten temporary turbines at the San Juan Power Plant need major repairs, leaving the island’s backup generation capacity thinner than planned.
Related coverage: Just 7 of San Juan’s 10 Temporary Power Turbines Are Available
Sources: El Nuevo Día, Primera Hora, LUMA Energy
