Rebuilding Puerto Rico's electricity supply
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 17 May 2022
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Samira Hussain takes you to Puerto Rico. Back to back hurricanes 5 years ago shattered the island's electricity grid, leading to the longest blackout in American history. Residents are still trying to claw their way out of the darkness.
But one Puerto Rican town, in the island's mountainous region, may have found a solution. Arturo Massol Deya is the associate director of Casa Pueblo, he tells us how he's using solar panels to ensure a reliable supply of electricity to his local community.
We also hear from Wayne Stensby, CEO of Luma Energy. Last year, the transmission and distribution of electricity in Puerto Rico was privatised and handed to Wayne and his team. He tells us the whole system needs a lot of regeneration and investment.
Presenter / Producer: Samira Hussain
Image: Arturo Massol Deya; Credit; Andrew Herbert BBC
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I had this secret. I robbed banks in my spare time. |
| 0:06.4 | Lives Less Ordinary from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:09.4 | This is not a good thing to do because police are after you. |
| 0:14.9 | Find out more at the end of this podcast. |
| 0:27.7 | Hello, I'm Samira Hussein, and on today's Business Daily, I'll take you to Puerto Rico. |
| 0:36.8 | Five years after it was battered by Hurricane Maria, the island is still fighting to rebuild its electricity grid. |
| 0:41.9 | Hurricane Irma, followed by Hurricane Maria, and the absolute devastation that that caused, |
| 0:43.9 | the island, the people in Puerto Rico. |
| 0:48.4 | And in many ways, it was kind of the one-two punch on the power system that had already suffered this decade of neglect. |
| 0:51.3 | Fossil-fueled corporate interests think they should do the job, |
| 0:55.2 | but local leaders here believe they have a more sustainable solution. |
| 0:59.2 | We have plenty of natural resources, clean energy sources that can be used to power the island, |
| 1:05.8 | to power Casabueblo, to power the municipality of Afunas, to power Puerto Rico. |
| 1:10.7 | It's a pathway for freedom. |
| 1:15.3 | Puerto Rico lies between the Dominican Republic and the British Virgin Islands. |
| 1:20.4 | It has plenty of sandy beaches and clear blue waters |
| 1:23.5 | and a thriving nightlife to serve both residents and tourists. |
| 1:29.7 | With 95% of the islands speaking Spanish, it's easy to forget that Puerto Rico is actually part of the United States. |
| 1:39.1 | As a territory, residents are considered citizens, but it has no voting power in Congress, and Puerto Ricans cannot vote in presidential elections. |
| 1:49.7 | The paradox of being neither a state or an independent country leaves Puerto Rico dealing with layers of complicated bureaucracy when it comes to rebuilding some basic infrastructure, |
| 2:02.5 | like its fragile and antiquated electricity grid. |
| 2:07.7 | What are you doing right now? |
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