Genera PR Admits It Doesn't Know Why Half of Its 14 Temporary Generators Keep Breaking Down

Genera PR confirmed this week that seven of the fourteen temporary generation units it has administered since 2023 are out of service, and the company acknowledged it has no clear explanation for the accelerated deterioration of the equipment ¹. Of the fourteen machines, ten are located at the San Juan power plant, and of those ten, three are currently not operating ¹. Genera PR said it is in talks with the manufacturer to carry out an in-depth assessment to identify the root cause of the wear, and that the component analysis will take time ¹.

The finding adds to a pattern that has already been documented for more than two years. In March 2024, a motion filed by Genera PR itself in court revealed that only one of the fourteen units was functioning normally at that time ³. Units 2, 6 and 9 at the San Juan plant are among the turbines for which, because of the wear they already carried at the time of purchase, the manufacturer committed to continuing to cover maintenance costs ¹. Genera PR also argued that the temporary units at Palo Seco and San Juan have not been able to undergo major maintenance because of recurring limitations in the generation fleet's capacity — in other words, there is not enough electrical margin to pull machines out of service for thorough repairs without risking more blackouts ¹.

These fourteen units are not a minor undertaking: the Fiscal Oversight Board approved a 2023 purchase contract for emergency generators with New Fortress Energy (NFE) estimated at between $300 and $310 million, of which FEMA obligated roughly $335 million under a 90% federal, 10% AEE cost-share formula ². The purpose was to add fast-start generation margin while chronic problems in Puerto Rico's permanent thermal fleet got resolved. But the project's cost had already ballooned before that: Genera had promised a lower price and ended up costing roughly $100 million more than initially projected ⁴. Now, with more than half of those machines out of service in the middle of hurricane season, the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency generation faces serious questions about its durability and about whether maintenance has been kept up on schedule.

What this means for you

If you live in the metro area or any zone that draws part of its supply from the San Juan plant, this matters because these units were specifically designed as fast backup for failures at the large power plants. With seven of fourteen out of service, that emergency cushion is thinner than it should be right in the middle of hurricane season, when any weather event can knock out other units in the system at the same time ¹. For small businesses, this translates into higher risk of short-duration outages during peak demand hours, and for households with medical equipment or medication that needs refrigeration, it is one more reason not to rely solely on the grid without a backup plan.

How to prepare / Checklist

1. Check the status of the plant serving your area and nearby units through Genera PR's public updates on its official X account (@Genera_PR) and the generation data portal at genera-pr.com/data-generacion.
2. Check LUMA's outage map (lumapr.com) before planning activities that depend on continuous electricity, especially during afternoon and evening peak hours.
3. If you have a backup generator, test it now, in advance, rather than waiting for the next outage to discover it will not start.
4. Have an alternate cold-chain plan for medications that require refrigeration, such as portable coolers with ice, in case of extended outages.
5. If your business depends on sensitive equipment (commercial refrigeration, servers, medical devices), consider an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) as a bridge while a generator starts up.
6. Report any outage or damage to electrical equipment through LUMA's hotline or mobile app, documenting the date and time, for future claims purposes.

What comes next

Genera PR has not given a timeline for completing the assessment with the manufacturer, nor has it publicly explained how much that diagnostic will cost or who will pay for it ¹. The underlying question — whether the accelerated wear is due to design, fuel quality, lack of major maintenance because of insufficient system margin, or a combination of factors — remains open, and the pattern of failures since 2024 suggests this is not an isolated problem but a structural one ¹³. Meanwhile, hurricane season remains active through late November, and any event that damages additional generation would test a system already operating with less than half of its backup units available at the metro area's most important plant.

Sources

¹ Sin respuestas Genera PR al deterioro acelerado de las unidades de generación temporales - El Nuevo Día

² Compra de generadores costará cerca de $300 millones - El Vocero

³ Solo una de 14 unidades de generación funciona con normalidad, revela moción presentada por Genera PR - Metro Puerto Rico

⁴ Genera prometió precio de unidades pico sería menor... ahora costarán $100 millones más - WAPA TV