Fiscal Board Gives PREPA Until September 23 to Explain Months-Long Delay With Gothams Energy

The Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB) has set a hard deadline for Puerto Rico's government: by September 23, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), the Public-Private Partnerships Authority, and the Independent Procurement Office (3PPO) must explain why they have gone more than four months without resolving the conditions the Board imposed on the temporary power generation contract with Gothams Energy ¹². The letter, sent September 16, also demands a clear timeline for when a final version of the agreement would be delivered ².

The contract at issue is one of two the government pursued in parallel to address the structural generation deficit that the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau itself had identified at between 700 and 850 megawatts. Gothams Energy, in a consortium with Turkish company Karpowership, proposes installing floating power plants, or 'powerships,' with 200 megawatts of capacity at the San Juan power plant, under a ten-year contract valued at $2.4 billion ³. The other track, with Power Expectations for 400 megawatts at the Aguirre plant for $5.9 billion, collapsed in August when the Board revoked its approval after Enchanted Rock - the company providing technical and financial backing for the project - said it never participated and that its name and signature had been used without authorization ⁴. That leaves Gothams as the only remaining temporary generation route left for the government, and it is now stalled too.

The Board's conditional approval for Gothams came on May 8, but it was not a clean green light. The FOMB demanded changes to the milestone schedule, with penalty clauses if commercial operation dates are missed; stronger financial guarantees and performance bonds; clearer termination mechanisms; protection against liquefied natural gas price volatility; and a reassessment by PREPA of whether San Juan was truly the best site, suggesting Costa Sur as an alternative with better logistical and interconnection conditions ³. On June 2, the contracting office submitted a partial response that still left documents pending, including the revised schedule ². Since then, according to the Board, there has been no substantial progress.

The record also shows that PREPA moved toward a multimillion-dollar contract without feasibility studies on using the San Juan power plant, without validating the necessary permits, without evaluating port logistics for operating generator barges, and without a binding natural gas supply agreement ³. There are also no interconnection studies confirming that the proposed 200 megawatts can actually be integrated into the grid at that location.

Adding to the controversy is a lobbying angle. Osvaldo Carlo Linares, president of the 3PPO, testified before the House Government Commission that former Secretary of Public Affairs Anthony Maceira lobbied on behalf of Gothams during the contracting process, while Alfredo Escalera, of the firm Globalize, did the same for Power Expectations ⁵. Senator Thomas Rivera Schatz has defended Maceira's work and ruled out a parallel House investigation on the matter ¹.

What this means for you

If you have been tracking this summer and fall's outages, this story matters because it is, literally, the government's plan B for adding generation while Genera PR keeps running aging plants with thin reserve margins. With Power Expectations out of the picture since August, Gothams is the only new firm generation piece the government has in the pipeline, and it has gone more than four months without being unstuck. That means, heading into winter, there is no realistic date for when those additional 200 megawatts could come online, which keeps the system vulnerable to failures like the ones already seen this month at Costa Sur and Aguirre.

How to / Checklist

1. Follow the public record of the temporary generation contract on the Fiscal Oversight Board's portal (oversightboard.pr.gov), where the review letters and documents are posted under Section 204 of PROMESA.
2. Mark September 23 as the key date: that is when PREPA, the Public-Private Partnerships Authority, and the 3PPO must respond to the Board.
3. Check the House Government Commission's public hearings, where the lobbying and handling of both temporary generation contracts have been discussed.
4. If you are worried about service reliability this fall, sign up for LUMA's outage alerts and have a backup plan (battery, generator, or ice) regardless of whether Gothams moves forward.
5. Contact your House representative or senator if you want the lobbying process identified by the 3PPO investigated before any final version of the contract is signed.

What's next

The agencies' response on September 23 will be the clearest signal yet of whether the Gothams contract is still alive or whether the government is left without either of the two temporary generation routes pursued since 2025. The Board could demand further changes, accept a new version of the contract, or - as it did with Power Expectations - determine that the agreement no longer complies with its review policy and declare it without effect. In the meantime, PREPA and Genera PR will keep relying on the existing fleet, already battered by recent failures at Costa Sur and Aguirre, to meet peak demand without any additional cushion of firm generation in sight.

Sources

1. El Nuevo Dia - Government Will Have to Respond to Fiscal Board Over Gothams Energy Contract Delay
2. El Vocero - Board Asks for Definition of Gothams Energy Generation Contract
3. Metro Puerto Rico - Fiscal Board Backs Batteries for Solar Projects and Conditions PREPA's Temporary Generation Contracts
4. NotiCel - Fiscal Oversight Board Revokes Approval of Temporary Generation Contract
5. El Nuevo Dia - Osvaldo Carlo Identifies the Figures Who Lobbied During the Temporary Generation Contracting Process