EEI Members Activate Help For Puerto Rico After 100 Days

What: EEI Members Activate Help For Puerto Rico After 100 Days, Barges With Trucks En Route

Impact: Over 1million Americans in Puerto Rico have been without power since Hurricane Maria struck on September 20th, 2017. On December 11th, utility groups, EEI, NRECA and APPA, signed an MOU with PREPA to render aid for reconstruction on a not for profit basis. The MOU, signed on December 8th started the flow of equipment to Puerto Rico. Equipment from around the Country started their shipment to Puerto Rico on barges originating in ports across the Gulf and Eastern seaports.

SolarWakeup View: Compared to Hurricane Irma preparation, where thousands of personnel and equipment were staged ahead of the storm, response to Hurricane Maria has been a lot more muted. Only 2.5 months after the storm hit, was an agreement put in place between the mainland utilities and PREPA – which has financial issues that could be at the root of this. Fault is aligned across the board, from PREPA to Congress and the utilities. Solar companies responded exponentially faster than the utilities, some of which are now using the news for positive social media postings.

Related: SolarWakeup spoke with Puerto Rico’s sole congressional representative, Congresswoman Gonzalez-Colon, Utility news about MOU and EEI Facebook feed