The power outage angered many Puerto Ricans who on average, pay power bills that are twice as costly as bills on the US mainland, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
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A power outage on the island has left almost 1.5 million people without electricity, according to the government-run electric company AEE.
The power outage also shut off water service for about 340,000 people, the governor said.
People buy ice during a massive blackout in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Thursday, September 22, 2016.
Padilla said they expect to get power back up for most people sometime this afternoon.
The Electric Power Authority said it was trying to determine what caused the fire Wednesday afternoon at the Aguirre power plant in the southern town of Salinas.
About 75 percent of 1.5 million homes and businesses served by the power utility had electricity restored by Friday morning, with cries of, “The lights are back on!” echoing through some neighborhoods. “This is an apocalypse”, Jose Tavela said as he ate at a small cafe in the capital that had a generator. They were forced to spend the night in darkness and without air conditioning in the tropical heat.
Earlier this week, a fire at a power plant in Puerto Rico set off a series of failures across the island’s aging electrical grid.
The power authority, PREPA, said in a statement on Wednesday that two power lines, each 230,000 volts, failed for reasons still being determined. “The system is not created to withstand a failure of this magnitude”. Even Puerto Rican Gov. Alejandro García Padilla appeared concerned: “Given that the system is so old, numerous setbacks could occur”, he said at a news conference.
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Many Puerto Ricans expressed doubts that power would be restored quickly, saying the economic slump has affected basic government services. The cause of the fire is not yet known. He said the switch where the fire began had received proper maintenance. Puerto Rico is now in the midst of a decade-long economic slump, and its power company is dealing with $9 billion worth of debt and an onslaught of corruption allegations.
