DOE Orders Fossil Units Online After Puerto Rico Blackouts, Citing Dispatchable Capacity Need
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has invoked emergency authority to compel Puerto Rico’s public utility to dispatch mothballed oil-fired and fossil-fueled power units, citing an imminent threat to grid reliability following two major blackouts in less than a month.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright, acting on behalf of the DOE’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER), on May 16 issued two emergency orders under the Federal Power Act Section 202(c) directing the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) to take immediate, specific actions to stabilize the island’s generation and transmission. The orders are based on findings that Puerto Rico’s grid remains in a fragile state due to decades of deferred maintenance, hurricane and earthquake damage, and insufficient investment.
Urgent Generation and Transmission System InterventionsOn April 16, Puerto Rico suffered a full island-wide blackout that affected all its 1.4 million electric customers and disrupted critical services across the territory. The DOE suggests the root cause was traced to inadequate clearance between vegetation and transmission line 50100, a key 230-kV transmission artery that extends from Cambalache to Manatí, operated by LUMA Energy but owned by publicly owned utility PREPA. Preliminary investigations show the resulting fault cascaded through the system, triggering a total loss of power. Less than a month later, on May 15, a partial blackout affected 134,000 customers. According to the DOE, these incidents, coupled with persistent poor voltage and frequency regulation, warrant immediate interventions in the generation and transmission systems.
One emergency order (Order No. 202-25-1) addresses the acute shortage of electric generation capacity on the island. It directs PREPA to dispatch 35 fossil-fueled generation units across 11 major plants—including Aguirre, Costa Sur, Central San Juan, Palo Seco, Cambalache, Mayaguez, Jobos, and Daguao—as well as 10 GE Vernova TM2500 mobile gas turbines and six diesel generator units staged in San Juan and Palo Seco by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The DOE found that Puerto Rico faces a severe shortfall in dispatchable capacity and determined that if the island does not restore at least 800 MW, the island could experience up to 135 days and 1,102 hours of forced load shedding through October 2025.
The order, effective May 16 through Aug. 14, 2025, authorizes PREPA and its agents—including the private operators managing generation and transmission under 2020 and 2023 public-private partnership agreements—to operate the designated units only during hours necessary to meet grid reliability needs, and within environmental constraints. The DOE further requires PREPA to report all unit run-times and parameters by Aug. 15 or when requesting renewal. The action follows cascading generation outages earlier this year, including the Feb. 14 failure of the 450-MW oil-fired Aguirre Unit 1 and the May 13 loss of the 410-MW dual-fuel Costa Sur Unit 5, which alone triggered a 200,000-customer load shedding event. A switchyard breakdown at the Costa Sur plant earlier, on Dec. 31, 2024, combined with a separate failure at Aguirre, triggered a system-wide outage that continued through Jan. 3.
The second emergency order (Order No. 202-25-2) targets the transmission system’s vulnerability to vegetation encroachment. It directs PREPA to conduct vegetation clearing along 66 high-voltage transmission corridors (across 115 kV and 230 kV lines), including the line identified as the origin of the April 16, 2025, island-wide blackout (Line 50100). The DOE and LUMA Energy jointly determined that overgrown vegetation had led to 23 events over the past year, resulting in more than 2.2 million customer interruptions and 1.5 billion minutes of lost service, the order shows. According to LUMA, full clearing of the identified corridors could prevent 80% of these outages, avoiding an estimated 1.76 million customer interruptions. For now, PREPA must complete the right-of-way clearing by Aug. 14, 2025, and report all improvements in line ratings and completion milestones to DOE.
Separately, the DOE on Friday said its Grid Deployment Office (GDO) has initiated a review of $365 million in Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund (PR-ERF) grants “to ensure all DOE assistance is used to support practical fixes to the grid and benefits all residents of Puerto Rico.” The Biden administration originally established the PR-ERF in December 2022 as a $1 billion fund to support resilient, renewable energy projects for vulnerable communities, with the second $365 million tranche—announced in December 2024—focused on installing solar and battery systems at community healthcare facilities, public housing, and multifamily subsidized properties.
On Friday, the DOE said emergency orders and review measures will “unlock emergency protocols and empower Puerto Rico’s government to address immediate problems plaguing the already fragile grid system and prevent further widespread outages ahead of peak summer demand season.”
A Grid on the BrinkPuerto Rico’s energy system has been battered by hurricanes, chronic underinvestment, and financial turmoil since PREPA’s 2017 bankruptcy. According to U.S. Congressional records, more than $15 billion in federal funding has been awarded to support Puerto Rico’s electric power system since Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 as of Feburary 2025. That total includes allocations from FEMA, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and DOE. As of early 2025, FEMA had obligated more than $10 billion for permanent work through its Public Assistance program, but only $2 billion had been disbursed. Of HUD’s $1.9 billion in Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds for the electric grid, less than 1% had been distributed by mid-2024.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), fossil fuel plants accounted for 93% of Puerto Rico’s utility-scale electricity generating capacity in 2024. Of that, petroleum-fired power plants made up 62%, followed by natural gas (24%) and coal (8%). As a comparison, renewables account for just 7%, and less than 1% of U.S. mainland electricity generation relies on petroleum, with exceptions in Hawaii (67%) and Alaska (10%).
“As Puerto Rico approaches the start of both the summer and hurricane season, challenges around balancing energy supply and demand, along with emergency preparedness, become paramount. Emergency protocols are necessary to address these issues and prevent further widespread outages,” the DOE said. “These emergency activities have been carefully coordinated with the Puerto Rican energy industry, FEMA, HUD, and DOE power experts to streamline efforts and ensure maximum effectiveness. Both Puerto Rico Governor Jenniffer González-Colón and Energy Czar of Puerto Rico Josué A. Colón-Ortiz have expressed strong support for these emergency activities. DOE is continuing to work closely with the Governor and all stakeholders to address Puerto Rico’s energy challenges.”
Gov. Jenniffer González-Colón, who took office in January, lauded the federal intervention on Friday. “I thank President Trump and Secretary Wright for their leadership and commitment to address once and for all Puerto Rico’s energy emergency. This Administration clearly understands the urgency of the crisis and is utilizing available, existing emergency authorities to put words into action. With today’s Section 202(c) orders, we will have the necessary flexibilities to begin stabilizing our power grid infrastructure and ensure an affordable, secure, and reliable supply of energy for all of Puerto Rico’s 3.2 million Americans,” she said.
A week earlier, on May 7, the governor declared her administration’s own set of emergency actions, including Executive Order EO-2025-016, which modified and expanded the island’s existing energy emergency declaration to encompass not just transmission and distribution infrastructure but also generation assets and supporting auxiliary systems. Framing modernization as a top priority, the order called on both public agencies and private operators to expedite repairs, upgrades, and coordination across the grid. “This declaration also seeks to modernize and strengthen the system in line with our current times and circumstances,” she said. On May 7, the governor also signaled intent to collaborate closely with federal partners, including DOE, FEMA, and HUD, to deploy both emergency tools and longer-term investments.
However, that same day, González-Colón announced that Unit 5 of the Costa Sur Thermal Power Plant, a 350-MW oil-and-gas-fired steam turbine unit, had successfully been brought back online after months of outage. The unit was synchronized to the grid on May 1 after a rehabilitation effort funded by approximately $3 million in federal and operational resources, she said. “Many claimed it would be impossible to complete repairs and rehabilitate this unit before the summer, yet we outlined this plan between January and February and achieved it in record time,” she said.
Additional generation is also in the pipeline, she noted. Unit 6 at the San Juan Power Plant (200 MW) and a combined cycle unit at the Aguirre Plant (150 MW) were expected to return to service within the week, which, along with temporary emergency units, would push system capacity beyond Puerto Rico’s historic summer peak of 3,200 MW.
“With these units, along with the emergency ones we plan to bring online, we will, for the first time in years, have the ability to perform maintenance without waiting for a unit to fail,” she noted. “This means we can carry out maintenance work proactively, reducing both repair costs and the downtime of our generation units.” The governor also credited Executive Order EO-2025-016 with accelerating key permits and approvals through coordination with the Energy Bureau and Fiscal Oversight and Management Board, enabling seven additional companies to prepare proposals for as much as 800 MW of new generation at the Aguirre and Costa Sur sites.
For now, the DOE’s emergency orders arrive amid a contentious policy debate over Puerto Rico’s renewable energy goals. The 2019 Puerto Rico Energy Public Policy Act set milestones of 40% renewables by 2025, 60% by 2040, and 100% by 2050, alongside a coal phase-out by 2028. Progress has clearly stalled, and only a fraction of federal funds for solar and storage projects have been disbursed. Large-scale renewables still account for little of the island’s supply.
González-Colón in February proposed scrapping the 2025 and 2040 targets, citing the urgent need for reliable power and the slow pace of renewable deployment. Her bill, which seeks to extend coal operations and prioritize fossil generation, has drawn sharp criticism from environmentalists and public health advocates.
Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act gives the DOE broad latitude to direct grid operations during emergencies, including waiving environmental laws for up to 90 days at a time. President Trump’s recent executive order further streamlines this authority, allowing for potentially indefinite interventions in the name of grid reliability.
However, while local permitting for energy projects has been waived, federal approvals are still required, especially for new thermal generation and emissions. Puerto Rico’s January 2025 established Office of the Energy Czar—headed by Josué Colón—reports directly to the governor and will act to oversee relations with private grid operators and federal agencies, sidelining the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau in emergency situations.
—Sonal Patel is a POWER senior editor (@sonalcpatel, @POWERmagazine).
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