By Jeffrey Karp and Kevin Fink

Over a year has elapsed since Hurricane Maria devastated the island of Puerto Rico, which, in addition to claiming thousands of lives, destroyed Puerto Rico’s electrical infrastructure. As discussed in prior postings, a number of factors have contributed to the delay in restoring and upgrading the electrical grid, including contract mismanagement by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority ("PREPA") and the lack of a consensus approach regarding the energy mix to be deployed on the Island.

By: Jeffrey Karp, Zachary Altman and Caroline Lambert

In the nine months since Hurricane Maria, substantial progress has occurred in bringing Puerto Rico’s power grid back online. Some consumers with access to solar microgrid systems regained power as soon as a few days after the storm, while others who relied on traditional energy sources had to wait for the power grid to be repaired. Solar microgrid systems are unique; they offer solar-powered electricity in parallel with the traditional energy grid but can also disconnect from the grid in times of crisis and provide solar-powered energy to a smaller subset of consumers.