May 7, 2025 – Guayanilla, Puerto Rico – Honoring her commitment to increase energy generation ahead of the peak summer months, Governor Jenniffer González-Colón announced that Unit 5 of the Costa Sur Thermal Power Plant came back online, which will inject an additional 350 megawatts to Puerto Rico’s electric grid.
Joined by Energy Czar and Executive Director of the Public-Private Partnerships Authority (P3), Josué Colón-Ortiz, the Governor also reported that seven energy generation companies have met all necessary requirements to eventually provide an additional 800 megawatts to the system. This initiative forms part of the actions taken since January to reduce service interruptions caused due to the lack of sufficient power generation capacity.
"Today we are announcing that Costa Sur’s Unit 5 has come back online, a major step in helping meet the increase in electricity demand for this coming summer. 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. Alongside this, Unit 6 of the San Juan Power Plant—which will contribute around 200 megawatts and has been offline since August 2024—and the Combined Cycle Unit of the Aguirre Power Plant—which will add another 150 megawatts—will bring us, barring unforeseen issues, an additional 350 megawatts by next week,” said the Governor during a press conference held at the Costa Sur facility in Guayanilla.
“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. This means we can carry out maintenance work proactively, reducing both repair costs and the downtime of our generation units. We will continue identifying solutions to stabilize electricity generation across the island. In fact, I’m in constant and direct communication with officials from the U.S. Department of Energy. Just yesterday, I met with several of them to secure additional federal support and assistance, so that Puerto Rico can finally have a reliable and resilient electric system,” added Governor González-Colón.
Costa Sur’s Unit 5, originally built in 1972, was successfully brought back online and synchronized with the power grid on May 1st, following a rehabilitation effort funded by approximately $3 million in federal and operational resources.
“This unit is one of the most critical in Puerto Rico’s energy generation system, it's one of the four largest we have. Up until now, we were producing around 2,600 megawatts, but with this unit back online, we’re reaching 3,000 megawatts. Historically, peak demand has been around 3,200 megawatts. With the units in San Juan and Aguirre expected to come online next week, we’ll be able to surpass that threshold,” stated the Energy Czar.
Regarding the seven companies set to contribute additional power generation, he added, “Thanks to the Governor’s leadership, including the executive orders she issued, the permitting process was accelerated by both the Energy Bureau and the Fiscal Oversight and Management Board. This week, the Governing Board of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority will review proposals that could add 800 megawatts of capacity, distributed between the Costa Sur and Aguirre plants.”
“I want to thank the Governor and the Energy Czar, who even calls me on weekends to check on the status of power generation, for challenging us to bring this unit online ahead of schedule. We accomplished it as a team, because Puerto Rico needs reliable energy,” said Iván Báez, Vice President of Government Affairs for Genera Puerto Rico.
The rehabilitation of Unit 5 included replacing the air preheater baskets and fully refurbishing the cooling towers. Preventive environmental maintenance was also performed, as part of more than 80 recovery initiatives completed over the past two months.
On April 16, Puerto Rico experienced an island-wide blackout. In response, the Governor took swift and decisive action, not only to restore service within 48 hours, but also to ensure that the island had enough power generation capacity to handle the increased demand expected during the summer months, when energy consumption typically peaks.
One key measure was the signing of Executive Order 2025-016, which modified and expanded Puerto Rico’s energy emergency, to align it with the National Energy Emergency declared by President Trump (Executive Order 14156). The local order also accelerated the permitting process for repairs, reconstruction, and replacement of key components in the power system, allowing for a swift increase in generation capacity.
