When this system was built, large-scale energy storage was very limited. We are confident our ideas could benefit island communities in any part of the world marked by powerful storms and other unpredictable threats.Īs is typical throughout the world, Puerto Rico designed its electricity infrastructure around large power plants that feed into an interconnected network of high-voltage transmission lines and lower-voltage distribution lines. This grid would rely heavily on microgrids, distributed solar photovoltaics, and battery storage to give utilities and residents much greater resilience than could ever be achieved with a conventional grid. Based on our years of study and analysis, we have devised a comprehensive plan for such a grid, one that would be much better suited to the conditions and risks faced by island populations. Rivera Pichardo/APĪs Puerto Rico rebuilds, there is an extraordinary opportunity to rethink the island’s power grid and move toward a flexible, robust system capable of withstanding punishing storms. Smart Solar: A homeowner uses his smartphone to monitor how much power his solar system is generating and how much electricity his household is consuming. In our research, we’ve tried to answer such questions as these: What would it take to make the island’s electricity network more resilient in the face of a natural disaster? Would a more decentralized system provide better service than the single central grid and large fossil-fuel power plants that Puerto Rico now relies on? Hurricane Maria turned our academic questions into a huge, open-air experiment that included millions of unwilling subjects-ourselves included. Worse, PREPA, a once well-regarded public power company, chose not to invest in new technology and organizational innovations that would have made the grid more durable, efficient, and sustainable. And yet, even before the storm, we had become increasingly concerned at how the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or PREPA, had bowed to partisan politics and allowed the island’s electrical infrastructure to fall into disrepair. Preparing for natural disaster is what any responsible government should do. Hurricanes are a fact of life in the Caribbean. Hurricane Maria turned our academic questions into a huge experiment that included millions of unwilling subjects-ourselves included. Government emergency services were slow to reach people, and many residents found assistance instead from within their own communities, from family and friends. The generators were expensive to operate, and people had to wait in long lines just to get enough fuel to last a few hours. citizens, were forced to rely on noisy, noxious diesel- or gasoline-fired generators. In the weeks and months following the hurricane, many of the 3.3 million inhabitants of Puerto Rico, who are all U.S. Power lines all over the island were downed, including the critical north-south transmission lines that cross the island’s mountainous interior and move electricity generated by large power plants on Puerto Rico’s south shore to the more populated north. But the remaining 5 percent-representing some 250,000 people-had to wait nearly a year.Īfter the hurricanes, many observers were stunned by the ravages to Puerto Rico’s centralized power grid: Twenty-five percent of the island’s electric transmission towers were severely damaged, as were 40 percent of the 334 substations. Thanks to heroic efforts by emergency utility crews, about 95 percent of customers had their service restored after about 6 months. All 1.5 million customers of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority lost power. The back-to-back calamity of Hurricanes Irma and Maria killed nearly 3,000 people and triggered the longest blackout in U.S. This time it was the Bahamas, where damage was estimated at US $7 billion and at least 50 people were confirmed dead, with the possibility of many more fatalities yet to be discovered.Ī little over two years ago, even greater devastation was wreaked upon Puerto Rico. As in previous years, we are left with haunting images of entire neighborhoods flattened, flooded streets, and ruined communities. Rivera Pichardo/APĪnother devastating hurricane season winds down in the Caribbean. Since then, installations of rooftop solar combined with battery storage have soared. Resilience: The yearlong blackout following Hurricane Maria underscored the fragility of Puerto Rico’s power grid.
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