Customers in Puerto Rico experienced an average of 36 hours of power interruptions in 2025 that were not caused by major events such as hurricanes, 19% more than in 2024, according to new data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The figure lands as a separate federal funding shift has redirected $365 million that had been earmarked specifically for solar and battery storage installations on the island.
A reliability gap that keeps widening
The EIA tracks outage duration using the System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI), which measures total hours of non-momentary power interruptions an average customer experiences in a year and distinguishes Major Event Days, defined by IEEE Standard 1366 as days when the daily system exceeds a predefined threshold measured in minutes per day and based on data from the previous five years, from routine operational failures.
On average between 2021 and 2025, Puerto Rican customers experienced 29 hours of power loss each year. By comparison, electricity customers in the mainland United States generally experience about two hours of electricity interruptions per year without major events.
That gap of roughly 14 to 1 illustrates the persistent structural disadvantage of the island’s grid relative to the mainland.
Excluding major-event days, the frequency of electricity service interruptions in Puerto Rico doubled between 2021 and 2025 and rose 13% from 2024 to 2025. On average, a customer in Puerto Rico experienced nearly 16 interruptions in 2025.
No direct hit, but still 23 additional hours lost
In 2025, major events resulted in Puerto Rican customers experiencing an additional 23 hours of power interruptions. Other major-event contributors included heavy rainfall and flooding, particularly between April and May.
Hurricane Erin, the first Atlantic hurricane of the 2025 season, rapidly intensified over the ocean as it approached the Caribbean. Although it did not make landfall, the storm sent heavy rain and strong winds to Puerto Rico. Two to four inches of rainfall, with isolated areas of six inches, were forecast, which could lead to flash and urban flooding, landslides and mudslides.
Beyond severe weather, the frequency and duration of power interruptions in Puerto Rico are linked to issues with the transmission and distribution system and generating capacity. Vegetation management is a common issue affecting transmission and distribution lines.
About half of Puerto Rico’s capacity comes from 10 petroleum-, gas- or coal-fueled generators, so a single unplanned outage can undermine reliability.
Battery storage funding redirected mid-crisis
The deteriorating reliability numbers arrive against a contested policy backdrop for energy storage on the island. The $365 million funding at the center of that debate was initially awarded by the Biden administration in December 2024 to support rooftop solar and battery storage installations slated to begin construction in 2026.
The Department of Energy announced it would redirect $365 million in funding to address Puerto Rico’s grid resiliency and expand access to secure power supply. The funding, allocated through the Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund, will be deployed to support practical fixes and emergency activities, focusing on critical facilities like hospitals and community centers. The announcement was made in May 2025.
DOE said it was reprioritizing the awards and would redirect funding to support technologies that improve system flexibility and response, power flow and control, component strength, supply security, and safety. The agency argued the redirection would expand access to reliable power for millions of people rather than thousands.
The shift drew scrutiny from energy storage advocates who argued that distributed battery systems could have provided localized backup capacity during exactly the routine outages the EIA is now documenting.
On May 16, 2025, DOE issued emergency orders No. 202-25-1 and No. 202-25-2, pursuant to Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act, to the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA). The first emergency order directs PREPA to dispatch generation units necessary to expand baseload generation and maintain grid reliability, while the second directs PREPA to perform vegetation management activities to help ensure operational availability of specified transmission facilities. Grid operators across the mainland have been leaning heavily on utility-scale storage to cover reliability gaps, a trend well illustrated by the record battery dispatches seen in California last summer.
What the data means for the island’s grid roadmap
The EIA’s 2025 reliability figures, drawn from the agency’s Annual Electric Power Industry Report early release, represent the worst non-major-event outage duration recorded in the five-year window the agency tracks. Analysts say the trend puts pressure on grid operator LUMA Energy and federal overseers to show measurable progress before the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season intensifies.
Between 2022 and early 2025 alone, the island saw more than 200 blackouts , a pace that has kept Puerto Rico at the center of federal grid policy debates.
With the battery storage program redirected and emergency orders governing day-to-day generation dispatch, the path toward routine reliability remains unclear heading into the second half of 2026.
