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Luma defends early performance, cites hiring, call‑center and remediation-plan milestones
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Summary
Luma told a Senate committee it prioritized hiring former Autoridad staff, reported ~100,000 applications and early service improvements, and described a 10‑year system remediation plan that depends heavily on federal funding and regulatory approvals.
Luma representatives told a Senate Government Commission hearing on Aug. 3 that the company is leading a long-term transformation of Puerto Rico’s transmission and distribution system and that early operational work is already under way.
"Luma confía que trabajando con los legisladores reguladores... lograremos un sistema de energía moderno, sostenible, confiable, eficiente, rentable y resiliente para el beneficio del pueblo de Puerto Rico," said Weinsteinsby, identified in the hearing as Luma’s president and CEO. Luma described its selection after an 18‑month competitive procurement and said its companies’ experience and contractually imposed performance metrics align its interests with those of the government and customers.
On staffing, Luma reported receiving around 100,000 job applications; approximately 43,000 were from island residents and about 1,300 former Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica employees accepted offers and work for Luma. The company said it prioritized hiring former Autoridad staff for open roles.
Luma said it opened 25 customer service centers across the island (including Vieques and Culebra), had substantial early in‑office volumes and handled a large volume of calls through its Miluma web portal and mobile app. The company reported initial call-center peaks of roughly 30,000 daily calls, which later fell below 15,000; it said the MiLuma app had about 250,000 downloads and the portal had several hundred thousand registered users.
On operations, Luma described 12‑hour field shifts, near‑round‑the‑clock emergency response teams, contractor vegetation work and completion of targeted capital work such as reenergizing the Conquistador substation in Trujillo Alto after a two‑year delay. Luma described a System Remediation Plan, a 10‑year roadmap of capital and operational projects that it said will depend largely on the effective use of federal funds and require reporting to the AAP and the Negociado de Energía.
Luma disputed several circulating claims about tariff increases and stressed it cannot unilaterally raise rates: "Luma no controla los costos de combustible... Luma no posee ni operará activos de generación... Luma no determina los costos de generación," the company said during its presentation.
Committee members pressed for documentary proof of early compliance and asked for staffing breakdowns and start‑of‑contract deliverables; the committee gave Luma five days to provide non‑confidential documentation where not barred by ongoing court cases.
Luma also noted cybersecurity and other start‑of‑contract insurance items had been resolved or are in process and that AAP and Negociado oversight mechanisms, including weekly and monthly reporting, are in place to monitor performance.
