FEMA OBLIGATES OVER $60.2 MILLION FOR POWER GRID REPAIRS IN SIX
MUNICIPALITIES
[https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20230123/fema-obligates-over-602-million-power-grid-repairs-six-municipalities]


Release Date: 
Janvier 22, 2023 

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO –The Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) obligated over $60.2 million distributed among 12 subprojects
for the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) that include
generation, transmission and distribution units in Bayamón, Caguas,
Mayagüez, Ponce, San Juan and Toa Baja.

These federal funds are part of nearly $1.7 billion that were
obligated to PREPA up to date for total of 87 approved subprojects for
the energy grid under the FEMA’s Accelerated Awards Strategy, known
as FAASt.

“At FEMA, we continue to work with PREPA and the Government of
Puerto Rico to keep improvements moving forward. This obligation will
benefit nearly 900,000 people living in these municipalities, who will
be able to rely on an improved electrical grid, not only for their
homes, but also for schools, hospitals and other facilities in the
area. Some of these projects include hazard mitigation proposals to
avoid similar damage in the future, such as the replacement of
concrete poles with galvanized steel poles, among other measures,”
said Deputy Federal Disaster Recovery Coordinator Andrés García.

One of the facilities that completed the proposed work with FEMA
funding is the Palo Seco Power Plant in Toa Baja. With an obligation
of over $53.7 million for transmission works, PREPA purchased and
installed three PWPS Mobile Gas Turbines, or mega generators. These
turbines will be used as a temporary power source to bypass the needs
of certain transmission lines and/or generation power plants. Another
obligation of over $2.6 million for generation purposes, was used to
complete the replacement of a demineralized water tank and
stainless-steel pipes. It included other works such as a soil study
and environmental compliance tests.

According to PREPA Executive Director, Engineer Josué A. Colón
Ortiz, the agency was able to complete all the necessary work and
tests to put the mega-generators in Palo Seco into service.

“An additional benefit of having the mega-generators in service is
that these modern units are much more efficient than the existing
peaking units replaced by them, resulting in a lower cost for
customers in Puerto Rico,” said Colón Ortiz, who also mentioned
that “with the support of FEMA and COR3, PREPA has been able to make
the necessary repairs to several generating units during the past
year, which has helped stabilize the generation system in Puerto
Rico.”

For works on distribution, an obligation of over $3.8 million was
distributed among 10 facilities located in Bayamón, Caguas,
Mayagüez, Ponce and San Juan. Included in this allocation are the
repairs to distribution pole and conductor of San Juan Group 8, that
includes distribution feeders Venezuela, Hato Rey, Tres Monjitas,
Baldrich, Las Lomas 4 and Las Lomas 5. With an obligation of more than
$483,000, existing poles and hardware were removed to install new ones
with concrete foundation bases in the same location. This project
captures funding of nearly $106,000 for a hazard mitigation proposal
to increase the wind tolerance of all materials and replace concrete
poles by galvanized steel poles.

“I thank FEMA for this million-dollar obligation, which allows us to
continue fulfilling the commitment of Governor Pedro Pierluisi’s
administration to renew the power generation, transmission and
distribution system with modern and efficient equipment. At COR3, we
support PREPA and LUMA throughout the technical process required to
complete their reconstruction projects. To date, some 10 permanent
works have been completed and another 113 projects valued at $415.2
million are in the construction or design stage,” said the executive
director of the Central Office for Recovery, Reconstruction and
Resiliency (COR3), Manuel A. Laboy Rivera.

To date, FEMA has obligated over $29 billion in Public Assistance
funds for roughly 10,400 projects that will support the rebuilding of
a more resilient Puerto Rico.

For more information about Puerto Rico’s recovery from Hurricane
María, visit fema.gov/disaster/4339
[https://www.fema.gov/disaster/4339] y recovery.pr
[https://recovery.pr.gov/en]. Follow us on social media at
Facebook.com/FEMAPuertoRico [http://www.facebook.com/femapuertorico],
Facebook.com/COR3pr [http://www.facebook.com/cor3pr] and Twitter
@COR3pr [https://twitter.com/cor3pr].