Senate panel opens probe into Ernesto's impacts as mayors accuse Luma of slow, uneven restorations

The Senate's Commission on Essential Services and Consumer Affairs opened an urgent inquiry on Aug. 22 into the effects of Tropical Storm Ernesto on Puerto Rico's essential services, focusing on electric and water restoration, vegetation clearance and the performance and contractual limits of private operators.

The hearing began with the commission's president reading a directive from the Senate president ordering an immediate investigation under session 6.1 and Article 31 of Puerto Rico's Political Code. The panel cited Luma Energy, Genera PR, the Autoridad de Energeda Ele9ctrica (AEE) and the Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados (AAA) among invited witnesses.

Mayors' testimony set an accusatory tone. Jaime Garceda, former director of the Association of Mayors, and Jose9 Antonio Santiago Rivera, mayor of Comeredo, told senators that multiple "pockets" of families remained without electricity more than a week after Ernesto. They said Luma's reported islandwide restoration percentages masked local failures in isolated rural sectors, that municipal brigades and qualified local contractors were excluded from response work, and that citizens' complaints (querellas) were sometimes not recorded or were later absent from the operator's system.

Jose9 Colf3n Ortiz, executive director of the AEE, testified that AEE retains ownership of key assets after the 2018 energy transformation law but that generation and transmission/distribution responsibilities were delegated to private contractors. He said AEE had not identified "significant damage" to AEE-owned infrastructure from Ernesto but noted that available hydroelectric generation capacity was constrained (AEE cited about 99 MW installed vs. roughly 30 MW available) and that many FEMA projects remain at different stages of approval and obligation.

Doriel Page1n, president of AAA, reported that AAA had roughly 96% of its 1.3 million customers receiving service at the time of testimony, with approximately 38,000 still affected after a temporary event at the super-aqueduct. Page1n outlined an increased inventory of emergency generators (about 1,620 units acquired or contracted) and multi-year rehabilitation projects underway in Corozal and other towns.

Luma Energy representatives acknowledged that the company had mobilized substantial field resources and that restoration percentages had risen into the high 90s across most municipalities, but they confirmed there were still thousands of customers without service in discrete areas. Luma also reported that some of its employees were shot while working in Luquillo on the morning of the hearing and urged caution in public rhetoric toward crews. Luma denied systemic deletion of complaints but acknowledged legacy data gaps in meter and customer records dating to Hurricane Mareda; it described an ongoing meter-inspection and smart-meter program intended to identify unregistered customers and to make outage detection more automatic.

On vegetation and long-term resilience, witnesses said overgrown vegetation remains a major cause of distribution outages. Officials described a FEMA-authorized vegetation-clearance program (Section 406 / "mitigation" and alternate approaches) designed to clear thousands of miles of rights-of-way under strict environmental and permitting rules; officials estimated the program's scale in the hundreds of millions to low billions of dollars and warned that the environmental-review phases can add months to timelines.

The commission recorded multiple requests for documents and data during the hearing, including deadlines for mayors to submit detailed complaint lists and for utilities to provide project and procurement records. The panel closed by saying it would hold follow-up hearings and that intransigent agencies or non-appearing entities could face citations under the Political Code.

What happens next: the commission instructed witnesses and agencies to submit several items (complaint lists, lists of unavailable hydroelectric units, contracts for outside brigades and generator rentals) under short deadlines and scheduled additional oversight activity.

Speakers quoted in this article are identified in the hearing record from their own appearances before the commission.