“Given the massive size of the outage, its scope and the necessity to operate in safety, we are informing our customers that the restoration will continue through Thursday night and into Friday,” the company said in the statement.
An unspecified failure led to a fire at the Costa Sur power plant outside the town of Guayanilla on the southwest coast around 8:45 p.m. Wednesday, cutting power across the island, Kevin Acevedo, vice president of LUMA Energy, said during a news conference. Firefighters have since extinguished the flames.
All customers on the island lost power service initially, Josue Colon, Puerto Rico’s lead telecommunications and infrastructure engineer, told reporters, “because all the generating units went offline.”
LUMA Energy, which operates the island’s power grid, expected power to be restored within 24 hours of the incident, Acevedo said at the news conference.
Hospital’s intensive care floor temporarily lost power
The intensive care floor at Mayagüez Medical Center, on the island’s west coast, temporarily was without power because of backup generator issues, prompting LUMA to especially focus on restoring power there, officials said.
Four patients on that floor were intubated, and would have been moved to a floor with electricity had service not been restored quickly, officials said earlier.
All hospitals were operational by Thursday afternoon, whether their power was restored or they were operating via a generator, according to Secretary of the Interior Noelia García Bardales.
“All hospitals are operating without any setbacks. All elective surgeries were performed today without inconveniences. All dialysis services are being performed without delays.”, said García Bardales.
Puerto Rico’s airports were operational, and no flight cancellations were reported due to the outage, according to officials.
Police have a plan to help circulate traffic with the lights out, but “we ask for cooperation from drivers on the roads,” Pierluisi said.
Replacement power plant parts ordered, official says
Firefighters extinguished flames that affected two substations at the plant, the Bureau of Puerto Rico Fire Departments said Wednesday on Facebook.
The cause of the fire is being investigated, Acevedo said Thursday morning, adding that the equipment was up to date on maintenance inspections.
Cleanup at the plant is underway, and replacement parts have been identified and ordered, Acevedo said.
Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled the name of Puerto Rico’s lead telecommunications and infrastructure engineer. It is Josue Colon.
CNN’s Rafy Rivera, Stefano Pozzebon, Michelle Watson, Carlos Suarez and Sara Weisfeldt contributed to this report.