Puerto Rico Infrastructure Repairs Report
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It's time to bring our readers an update about the progress of repairing the electric grid infrastructure in Puerto Rico. How appropriate for this good news to be shared during February 2021 because we are celebrating 70 years of National Engineers Week, February 21 - 27, 2021. |
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Guest author Michael S. Ellegood, PE, has held positions ranging from Project Engineer through Senior Executive in major consulting engineering firms. He joined the public sector as an agency head, ultimately retiring as County Engineer, Public Works Director, and Transportation Director of Maricopa County, Arizona. Currently, Michael serves as Senior Consulting Engineer with E + E LLC.
Michael provided us with a senior consulting engineer opinion about the serious Puerto Rico infrastructure issue as a feature article in the
May 2018 edition of The Credential.
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ENR recently announced that the consulting firm Burns & McDonnell has been awarded a multi-million-dollar, multi-year (subject to annual renewal) contract to rebuild and harden the electrical grid in Puerto Rico. The island territory was severely damaged in September 2017 by Hurricane Irma, followed two weeks later by Hurricane Maria. This destroyed much of the island infrastructure, including the electrical grid. According to the ENR report, the replacement strategy includes hardening the generation and distribution to provide hurricane resistance including renewable power, extensive battery power storage and the development of "mini-grids" to service remote areas of the island.
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10-year plan - Transmission and distribution lines throughout the island will be made resilient.
Photo courtesy Burns & McDonnell |
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The hardened reconstruction strategy is essential given the increase in severity of hurricanes and the fact that Puerto Rico has a history of regularly being in the path of these destructive weather events, but there is more to a successful recovery strategy than a rebuild: |
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- The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) was the island territory's power company. For several years prior to the 2017 storm events, PREPA suffered from increasing debt and an inability to properly maintain and properly repair its infrastructure. This has been attributed in part to poor fiscal management of the entire Puerto Rican government. The reconstruction effort must leave behind a financially stable PREPA based on sound sustainable fiscal policies.
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- Burns & McDonnell has pledged to employ as many local subcontractors as practical. This is encouraging, as it is essential to leave behind a local construction capability to perform essential maintenance and engineering.
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- Puerto Rico, as a Spanish-speaking U.S. Territory populated with U.S. citizens, suffered from benign neglect for decades by the rest of the United States. There have been widespread allegations of corruption at the highest levels of the Territorial government. This led to the ouster of the Governor in 2019 and turmoil over his replacement. The Territory itself has been through an ongoing debt crisis for nearly a decade. Both the financial and political stability of the island is in disorder. The issue of stable, honest, transparent governance is essential for the long-term success of the reconstruction. This is further complicated by the complex and convoluted relationship between the United States and the Territory - not a State with full representation, sort of a colony but not really. The people of Puerto Rico deserve better.
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Burns & McDonnell is a highly experienced consulting firm with a well-earned reputation for quality of work and innovative solutions. But the best engineering in the world will not compensate for inadequate governance, a clear and essential need of the people of Puerto Rico. |
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