“Puerto Rico was without power yesterday after a widespread failure in the fragile electricity grid triggered a island-wide blackout”, by Doug Sheridan

Bloomberg writes, nearly all of Puerto Rico was without power yesterday after a widespread failure in the fragile electricity grid triggered a island-wide blackout.

The outage began at 5:30 AM, leaving about 1.3 MM of Puerto Rico's 1.4 MM customers in the dark, according to LUMA Energy, the private company that operates the system. It appears the outage was causes by a faulty cable.

PR has one of the most expensive and least reliable power systems in the nation, with frequent outages plaguing residents. This outage was the most extensive since Hurricane Ernesto hit in Aug, leaving roughly half the island without power. Efforts to modernize the grid have been slow, stoking anger among residents, whose daily lives are often disrupted.

When Jenniffer Gonzalez takes over as Puerto Rico governor later this week she'll have her hands full. Her solution is to drop some of Puerto Rico’s clean energy targets in favor of using more LNG. A local law that requires Puerto Rico to have 100% renewable energy by 2050, among other commitments, is not only unrealistic but damaging economic activity, she said.

“We cannot continue to lose companies because of lack of energy, and none of them can work 24-7 in different shifts with just solar energy" Gonzalez said. “I believe that we should diversify our energy basket."

Energy is a crucial issue in Puerto Rico, where a derelict grid devastated by natural disasters and mismanagement leads to frequent blackouts and expensive electricity. Gonzalez said the situation is so bad that risks the island's pharmaceutical and medical-device manufacturing sectors, which represent almost half the economy.

Only 7% of PR's power comes from renewable sources despite 2019 legislation that set ambitious targets for clean energy adoption, including 40% use by 2025. At the time, lawmakers expected to use federal resources to rebuild the island's grid to prioritize renewables, in particular solar. Gonzalez says the targets are getting in the way of other, cheaper, forms of energy and have slowed the use of some $17B in federal aid.

Gonzalez's proposals underscore a broader pushback against clean energy. Donald Trump promised to prioritize fossil fuel extraction and put an end to the renewable energy policies set by his predecessor. Other US utilities have been scaling back their carbon reduction goals and delaying the retirement of coal plants.

Our Take: Puerto Rico is an example of how renewables can quickly gum up the works on many grids. You know why? Because as soon as gov'ts decide to prioritize renewables, not only do things like reliability and system inertia start to experience problems, but developers of reliable and affordable dispatchable fossil fuel generation resist investing on the system. And who can blame them? States have let legacy thermal generation twist in the wind as renewables are given priority on systems. Why spend more money that's stranded from Day One?