More New York Utility Workers Sent to Help Restore Power in Puerto Rico
On Jan. 8, 2018, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced the deployment of 46 National Grid workers to help restore power to Puerto Rico’s severely damaged power grid from Hurricane Maria in September.
“New Yorkers help their neighbors in their time of need and I could not be prouder of the way this state stood up and helped with power restoration efforts in Puerto Rico,” Gov. Cuomo said.”We are not only successfully restoring power each day, we are simultaneously looking to help rebuild stronger so that our brothers and sisters in Puerto Rico have a resilient power system that can weather future storms.”
In response to a request by Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossell for utility mutual aid resources, Gov. Cuomo first mobilized the New York utility contingent in November 2017 . The crews, primarily transmission and distribution, damage assessors and general support staff, have been undertaking repairs to transmission lines and supporting other electric infrastructure work. The workers are being rotated as necessary to maintain a consistent workforce and teams have been working 16 hour days, seven days a week to help restore power.
Gov. Cuomo also recently established the Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Working Group and announced a comprehensive plan with recommendations on how to rebuild and transform Puerto Rico’s power system into on that it is more resilient, efficient, advanced and less dependent on fossil fuel imports that cost Puerto Ricans more than $2 billion annually.
In January, the U.S. electric utility industry plans to send more than 1,000 additional utility workers and hundreds of additional trucks and pieces of equipment to Puerto Rico to help accelerate the restoration of power. Edison Electric Institute, the trade association for investor-owned utility companies, is leading the nationwide response in cooperation with the American Public Power Association and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.
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