LUMA Crews Perform Work to Make Island Municipality Electrically Resilient

To improve the reliability and quality of electric service, LUMA crews recently completed preventive work in Vieques in Puerto Rico. They repaired critical areas on transmission line 5400 and performed maintenance work at the substation. 

 

As part of the work, 10 areas identified as potential failure points were previously identified with a thermovision camera and were attended to during the improvement period. By using infrared images, the thermovision camera allows the detection of susceptible areas in the system that, when attended to proactively, can prevent problems in the electrical system and service interruptions. Attending to the so-called hot spots in the lines allows to increase the useful life, reduces failures and guarantees the safety and efficiency of the electrical system. 

 

“Because of the distance from the island municipality, it is important to keep preventive work and maintenance up to date, and that is what we are doing in Vieques. We want to improve the continuity and quality of the electric service, especially during the rainy season,” said Hendzon Martínez, director of transmission. 

 

He also explained that throughout the weekend, crews carried out vegetation clearing work as a  follow-up to the work carried out in previous months to prevent branches from coming into contact with the lines.

 

“With this, we ensure the constant flow of electricity decreasing the likelihood of outages,” added Martínez. 

 

Furthermore, maintenance work was conducted on the substation's components. The director of Substations East, Luis Miranda, said that the transformer was tested to monitor the condition of the internal and external parts and that it complies with the manufacturer's parameters. In addition, tests were carried out on the distribution switches and the battery bank, which are critical equipment that support the reliable operation of the substation. 

 

“All these works that we carry out in the substation minimize the possibility of failures in the equipment, benefiting the 5,000 clients we have in the island municipality,” highlighted Miranda. 

 

These works join the improvements that have recently been made to the 3100 transmission line, specifically in the section from Fajardo to the Daguao substation in Naguabo from where the 34 kV submarine cable to Vieques and Culebra leaves. On this line, changes were made to the hardware, which supports the conductors for the durability and resilience of the line. The ceramic insulators were also replaced with polymer, a lighter material that provides greater durability. 

 

Meanwhile, on line 36200, in the section from the Río Blanco substation to Daguao, in addition to maintenance work, such as changing the hardware and insulation, vegetation clearing work was also carried out. 

 

“The work carried out this weekend in Vieques is part of our commitment to modernize and maintain the 300 substations throughout Puerto Rico to make the electric grid more reliable and resilient,” Miranda said. 

 

These efforts are in addition to the work completed on streetlights in the island municipality that began this year. So far, over 750 luminaires have been replaced with LED equipment that offers greater efficiency and resilience. Of these, 93 are amber or red lights to promote the safe nesting of sea turtles. Since the summer of 2022, LUMA has replaced more than 125,000 streetlights across Puerto Rico.