PUERTO RICO POWER GRID NO MATCH FOR HURRICANE FIONA — Reuters, Tuesday 20 September 2022
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (Reuters) — Some 80% of homes and businesses in Puerto Rico still lacked power on Tuesday as rains from Hurricane Fiona receded, leaving residents complaining that the island’s troubled electrical grid was still a mess before the storm, despite billions of dollars in funding to improve it. Power provider LUMA Energy said it had restored service to more than 100,000 customers but said “full restoration could take several days.” Fiona hit Puerto Rico on Sunday, causing an island-wide outage for its 1.5 million customers. Puerto Rico’s grid has long been criticised as unreliable, but residents have complained that outages have become more frequent since LUMA took over operations last year. “We had a horrible experience in the aftermath of Maria. They promised it would be better. It hasn’t,” said one San Juan attorney. LUMA took over operations of the island’s electrical grid in 2021, a joint venture between units of Canadian energy firm ATCO Ltd (50%) and US energy contractor Quanta Services Inc (50%). A study from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) found that service restoration times and voltage fluctuations increased after privatisation, largely due to a shortage of experienced workers. Federal Emergency Management Administration figures show that about $20 billion of the $65 billion allocated to Puerto Rico after Maria have been spent.
532 TAIWAN SCHOOLS REPORT DAMAGE FROM MAGNITUDE 6.8 EARTHQUAKE — Taiwan News, 20 September 2022
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — In the wake of a magnitude 6.8 earthquake and multiple aftershocks that struck southeastern Taiwan at 2:44pm on Sunday 18 September, five hundred thirty-two schools across Taiwan reported damage totalling more than NT$115.7 million (US$3.68 million). Kaohsiung had the largest number of schools damaged with 115, followed by New Taipei City with 54 and Hualien County with 49. The greatest monetary damage was in Miaoli County at NT$16.94 million, followed by Hualien County at NT$16.7 million. Only Chiayi City, Kinmen County, and Lienchiang County had not reported schools suffering damage from the earthquake.