Widespread outage hits Puerto Rico as customers demand ouster of private electric company

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A widespread power outage has hit Puerto Rico and left more than 340,000 customers without electricity after two of the U.S. territory’s power plants shut down. The capital of San Juan was left without power late Wednesday, as well as neighboring municipalities including Bayamón, Caguas and Carolina. Luma Energy, which operates transmission and distribution for Puerto Rico’s power authority, said on X that the outage was tied to an issue with the power plants’ transmission lines.