Energy Bureau demands firm timelines as grid reliability concerns intensify
After a summer of repeated load-shedding and mounting concerns over Puerto Rico’s fragile electric grid, the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau is pressing the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), private Operator LUMA Energy, and two renewable-energy developers to explain why two long-delayed solar projects still have no firm path to operation.
In orders issued August 10, the Bureau gave the parties ten days to file coordinated, verified status reports on unresolved interconnection work, years-late milestones, and firm dates for energization and commercial operation.
The order puts new pressure on CIRO One Salinas LLC and Xzerta-Tec Solar I LLC, whose utility-scale solar projects remain out of service despite years of regulatory activity and repeated reporting. The Bureau wants each company, together with PREPA and LUMA, to provide precise completion percentages, identify every remaining interconnection requirement, and replace open-ended “TBD” milestones with firm dates for energization and commercial operation.
The most advanced of the two projects is CIRO One, a 90-megawatt solar facility in Salinas that was approved in 2021 and whose generation plant is already fully built. But the project remains stalled short of operation because of unresolved interconnection work, including sectionalizer approvals, design revisions, testing coordination and outstanding requests for information. PREPA’s June 2026 monthly report still listed commercial operation, substantial completion and final completion as “TBD,” a gap the Bureau said is no longer acceptable given the project’s physical progress.
The Xzerta-Tec Solar I project in Hatillo is further behind. The 60-megawatt installation, approved in 2021 and cleared to proceed with construction in October 2025, has been slowed by design and procurement issues. PREPA reported in June 2026 that LUMA had closed pending requests for information and completed relay studies, but the EPC contractor’s final detailed-design package was returned for correction, delaying long-lead equipment procurement. The Bureau also flagged conflicting timelines: one report listed commercial operation in November 2027, while another placed it in September 2029.
The orders come against a backdrop of repeated failures across Puerto Rico’s aging generation fleet. Recent outages at EcoEléctrica, Aguirre, Costa Sur and San Juan Unit 6 left hundreds of thousands of customers without service, reinforcing the Bureau’s view that delayed renewable projects are no longer just a contracting problem. They are a reliability issue.
To move the projects out of limbo, the Bureau ordered the developers, PREPA and LUMA to jointly identify every prerequisite that still stands between each facility and commercial operation. That includes easements, design reviews, testing, metering, commissioning and any other step required for interconnection. The filings must assign responsibility, provide completion dates and explain any disagreement among the parties with technical or contractual support.
The Bureau also warned that the monthly reports already required from the parties must become more useful. Future filings must incorporate the firm milestone dates established in response to the orders, and any slippage must identify the responsible party, explain the cause, and describe the corrective action being taken. Failure to comply could expose the parties to administrative fines of up to $25,000 per day under Act 57-2014.
