Puerto Rico’s Power Grid Woes Briefly Take Center Stage at Super Bowl

Tuning in for the halftime show at Super Bowl LX, I was not expecting to see transformer explosions become part of the pyrotechnics, but a set piece during a performance by Puerto Rican recording artist Bad Bunny appeared to reference the island territory’s chronic power grid problems.

As part of the show, dancers performing with Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, known by the stage name Bad Bunny, dangled in mock line worker gear from four distribution lines, which sparked and appeared to “explode” with stage pyrotechnics during a musical crescendo.

This part of the halftime show coincided with a song of Bad Bunny’s titled “El Apagón,” or “the power outage.” During this part of the show, the lights of Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, dimmed temporarily.

Customers in Puerto Rico experience about 27 hours of power every year – and this is in a good year, with no hurricanes. This compares with two hours of outage for the mainland US, according to the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Energy Information Administration (EIA).

During major weather events, outages are of course much worse. Hurricane Enrnesto (August 2024) knocked out power to about a million customers. Hurricane Fiona (September 2022) left all of the island’s 1.5 million electricity customers without power, according to the EIA.

The Puerto Rican power grid has issues with its distribution, transmission as well as its power generation. To boot, a year-round growing season makes vegetation management an expensive challenge.

Petroleum-fired power plants generate about 62% of Puerto Rico’s power, with natural gas generating 24%, coal 8% and renewables 7%, according to the EIA.

The Puerto Rican Electric Power Authority (PREPA) is also about $9 billion in debt, and currently in negotiations with BlackRock Financial Management on how to restructure.