Puerto Rico Faces Steep Electricity Bill Hikes Amidst Grid Reliability Concerns
Puerto Rico is experiencing significant increases in electricity bills, with a recent analysis by the Center for Development Studies at the University of Puerto Rico indicating a rise from 19.63 cents to 26.9 cents per kilowatt-hour since 2020. This surge in costs, which is steeper than on the U.S. mainland, has occurred despite no improvement in the quality of electricity service. The issue has been exacerbated since LUMA, a private company, took over electricity distribution in 2021, promising better and more reliable service. The Puerto Rico Energy Bureau approved a new quarterly rate adjustment in October, leading to dozens of dollars added to household bills and thousands to some businesses. This comes nearly a decade after Hurricane Maria devastated the island's energy infrastructure, and despite $14 billion allocated by Washington since 2017 for grid improvement, only $2.7 billion has been disbursed, according to a June report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The latest increases are l...
