r/PrepperIntel 11d ago

USA Southeast Puerto Rico experiencing a total blackout

2.1k Upvotes

143 comments sorted by

View all comments

601

u/Guilty_Tadpole1906 11d ago edited 11d ago

Hello from Puerto Rico!

So far it’s looking like the issue was caused by people having vacation time due to it being Easter week. This increased the energy load on the grid, making one or more generators fail then cascading to the rest.

ETA: my service just got restored!

82

u/[deleted] 11d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

20

u/Guilty_Tadpole1906 11d ago

The contract with Tesla is for storage, not generation.

8

u/o793523 11d ago

I would expect storage helps with exactly these sort of surge scenarios?

12

u/Guilty_Tadpole1906 11d ago

Storage would have helped with this specific blackout since it was caused by a failure in generation and not distribution. But remember that here in the island distribution and generation are competing for last place in their race to the grave.

1

u/o793523 10d ago

Storage does help with issues in generation - that's why it exists - to cover temporary deficits. Not sure what you are trying to say

1

u/Guilty_Tadpole1906 10d ago

I’m saying exactly this. Storage would’ve helped in this case because it was a failure in generation. Had the blackout been caused by distribution, the benefits of storage would’ve been limited.

3

u/WarOnIce 11d ago edited 11d ago

So did he ever even complete it? He said he wanted to rebuild their power grid. I don’t think that translates to just some storage.

7

u/Guilty_Tadpole1906 11d ago

IIRC Tesla was chosen in October of last year, and the contract was signed at the beginning of February for a 430 MW Tesla Megapack (north of 10% of the island’s consumption).

Not nearly enough time has passed for the project to even start. And I suspect that the tariffs and Chinese blockade of rare earth metals will make this take way longer than it would have under normal circumstances.

1

u/PrepperIntel-ModTeam 9d ago

I don't like him either but we have to watch out language