Puerto Rico to privatize power generation amid outages
Puerto Rico's government says it plans to privatize electricity generation, a first for a U.S. territory facing chronic power outages as it struggles to rebuild a crumbling electric grid SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Puerto Rico announced Sunday that it plans to privatize electricity generation, a first for a U.S. territory facing chronic power outages as it struggles to rebuild a crumbling electric grid. The move marks the beginning of the end for Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority, a behemoth long accused of corruption, mismanagement and inefficiency that holds some $9 billion in public debt — the largest of any government agency. Many Puerto Ricans already irate and fatigued by power outages were wary of the announcement, given that serious complaints about the length of outages, costly power bills and other issues arose after the island’s government privatized the transmission and distribution of power in June 2021. Fermín Fontanés, executive director of Puerto Rico’s Public-Pri...