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← Economic Fallout

Puerto Rico power outages surge 19% in 2025, far exceeding U.S. mainland levels

Confirmed1 source · Aug 10, 2026

Customers in Puerto Rico averaged 36 hours of non-weather-related power interruptions in 2025, compared to about 2 hours annually on the U.S. mainland.

What happened

In 2025, Puerto Rico electricity customers experienced an average of 36 hours of power interruptions from routine causes—a 19% increase from 2024—plus an additional 23 hours from major events including heavy rainfall, flooding, Hurricane Erin's tropical storm-force winds, and tree damage. The frequency of interruptions nearly doubled since 2021 and increased 13% year-over-year, with customers experiencing an average of almost 16 interruptions in 2025 (or 17 when including major event days). No major hurricanes directly struck Puerto Rico in 2025, though severe weather between April and May contributed significantly to outage duration.

Context

Puerto Rico's grid reliability remains substantially worse than the mainland U.S., where customers experience about 2 hours of annual outages from non-major causes. The five-year average (2021–2025) shows Puerto Rican customers lose 29 hours per year to power interruptions. The rising trend in both outage duration and frequency since 2023 indicates a deteriorating pattern in routine grid operations, separate from weather-driven failures. This distinction between routine operational failures and major events is important for assessing underlying infrastructure performance versus external shocks.