Ratepayers May Be on the Hook for $67 Million in Gas New Fortress Energy Never Delivered

Electric customers in Puerto Rico could end up paying more than $67 million for liquefied natural gas that New Fortress Energy (NFE) never actually had to deliver, according to an investigation by El Nuevo Día published the night of September 30 ¹. The problem stems from a "take or pay" clause in the gas supply contract between NFE and its subsidiary Genera PR, the company that operates thermoelectric generation under Puerto Rico's energy transformation scheme.

The San Juan and Palo Seco power plants, which depend on gas NFE ships to a floating import terminal in San Juan Bay, have suffered repeated forced outages in recent weeks. When a unit unexpectedly goes offline, Genera PR cannot burn the volume of gas the NFE contract calls for buying each month. But under a take-or-pay clause, the buyer is still obligated to pay for that contracted volume even if the plant never consumes it, and that cost ultimately gets passed on to the island's electric bill ¹.

The numbers

According to reporting by Manuel Guillama Capella, gas purchases from NFE would fall short by roughly 18% of the contracted volume because of the outages at San Juan and Palo Seco ¹. That shortfall, multiplied by the gas price under the existing contract, is what produces the more than $67 million exposure for ratepayers ¹. The hit lands at a particularly bad moment: since September 17, both plants have been running on diesel -a much more expensive fuel than natural gas- because a legal dispute between NFE and the San Juan Bay Pilots Association kept the LNG tanker Amur River from docking at the gas terminal ². On September 30, NFE's attorneys told federal judge Silvia Carreño that they had reached a verbal pre-agreement with the pilots to allow the docking, though it was still unresolved who would cover the cost of keeping tugboats on standby while the Amur River remains berthed ².

That same day, the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau (NEPR) approved a 5.28-cent-per-kilowatt-hour increase to the electric bill, effective October 1, to cover fuel and purchased-power costs from the July-to-September quarter that came in higher than projected. For a residential customer without a subsidy using 800 kWh a month, that works out to roughly $42.27 more, pushing a bill from $228.59 to $270.86 ³. NEPR noted that the adjustment "is neither permanent nor fixed" and could drop if fuel costs fall in future quarters ³, but it did not say whether the potential $67 million charge for gas never purchased from NFE will be layered into upcoming quarterly adjustments.

What this means for you

If you pay a light bill in Puerto Rico, this is not an abstract corporate-contract dispute -it is money that can come directly out of your pocket in upcoming fuel adjustments. The pattern is familiar: whenever a plant goes down or a supplier hits a logistical snag, the cost is almost always passed to the ratepayer rather than absorbed by whoever caused the failure. The combination of damaged plants, nearly two weeks of more expensive diesel dependence, and a contract clause that forces payment for gas that was never burned means your October bill and the quarters that follow will likely keep climbing, even if you never see a line item with NFE's name on it.

How to do it / Checklist

1. Check the breakdown on your bill through the LUMA app or portal (MiLUMA) and look for the "fuel adjustment" or "purchased power" line to see how much you're paying for generation versus distribution.
2. Go to the NEPR filings portal (energia.pr.gov, "Casos" section) and search for the docket covering the gas supply contract between Genera PR and New Fortress Energy to see whether a case has been opened over the $67 million charge.
3. If your bill jumped unusually after October 1, request a review or file a dispute through LUMA, and if it isn't resolved, file a complaint with NEPR as an affected ratepayer.
4. Contact your community board or municipal government to ask whether the municipality is participating as an intervenor in NEPR cases tied to these costs -several municipalities and community groups have standing to intervene in these proceedings.
5. If you have solar panels or are considering them, ask your installer how a battery-backed system shields you from these fossil-fuel adjustment charges, which don't apply to power you generate and store yourself.

What comes next

It's still unresolved who will pay for the tugboats standing by while the Amur River is docked, a detail that could still stall the pre-agreement between NFE and the pilots ². It also remains to be seen whether NEPR audits or rejects all or part of the $67 million charge before it's passed on to ratepayers -something the regulator has not publicly confirmed. And as NEPR itself warned, October's fuel adjustment is not the last word: it gets reviewed every quarter, so the real cost of these generation failures and Puerto Rico's dependence on NFE's gas will keep showing up on bills to come.

Sources

1. El Nuevo Día, Manuel Guillama Capella, "Por causa de unidades averiadas, abonados se exponen a pagar sobre $67 millones por combustible no comprado a New Fortress Energy," September 30, 2026. https://www.elnuevodia.com/noticias/locales/notas/por-causa-de-unidades-averiadas-abonados-se-exponen-a-pagar-sobre-67-millones-por-combustible-no-comprado-a-new-fortress-energy/
2. Telemundo PR, "NFE y los pilotos de la bahía de SJ alcanzan preacuerdo para atracar el Amur River," September 30, 2026. https://www.telemundopr.com/noticias/puerto-rico/colapsa-acuerdo-entre-nfe-y-los-pilotos-de-la-bahia-de-sj-para-atracar-el-amur-river/2848452/
3. Telemundo PR, "A pagar más: Negociado de Energía aprueba aumento en la factura de luz," September 30, 2026. https://www.telemundopr.com/noticias/puerto-rico/a-pagar-mas-negociado-de-energia-aprueba-aumento-en-la-factura-de-luz/2848284/