Restructuring the Puerto Rico Electricity Sector
Published on August 22, 2005
The availability of high quality, reliable and cost efficient electric power is of strategic importance for the future economic development of Puerto Rico. This means that without access to relatively affordable and reliable electric power it will be extremely difficult, if not outright impossible, to promote sustained growth in basically any area of economic endeavor in Puerto Rico, be it in industrial biotechnology, retail commerce, small and medium enterprises, tourism or services because the cost of electric power is usually one of the top cost drivers in each of these industrial or commercial sectors.
The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (the “Authority” or “PREPA”), created pursuant to Act No. 83 of May 2, 1941 (the “Act”), is the sole provider of electric power in Puerto Rico. According to the Act, the Authority was created “for the purpose of conserving, developing and utilizing the water and power resources of the Commonwealth, to make the benefits of those resources available to the residents of Puerto Rico in order to promote the general welfare and to increase commercial activity in, and the prosperity of, the Commonwealth.”