The Montreal Atkinsréalis Group Inc. Infrastructure Engineering Specialist and Management of Projects Management and Project Management Management. It will provide architectural and engineering services to improve, strengthen and harden the infrastructure of transmission and distribution of electrical transmission of Puerto Rico.
The company claims that its focus will focus on improving power lines and substations for Luma Energy, a private energy company that operates and manages the system of electricity transmission and distribution of the island. Luma, owned by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PEPA), is also responsible for maintaining and modernizing the power infrastructure that serves about 1.5 million customers.
No cost was announced for the ATKINSRÉALIS contract, but in February, Luma announced that the company -based operation, based on PR, works with Linxon US LLC to build nine energy interconnection points to add more than 990 MW of clean energy and more than 700 MW of storage to Puerto Rico electric grate.
According to the United States Energy Information Administration, Puerto Rico consumes 70 times more energy than it produces, with oil, natural gas and coal by providing 90% of its electricity generation capacity. Long vulnerable to interruption due to location and infraining, the island’s electricity infrastructure was largely destroyed in September 2017 by Hurricane Maria, a hurricane in category 4 that made the landing only two weeks after the Hurricane Irma in category 5 went near. The loss of approximately 18,000 miles of transmission lines that linked mainly generating plants located along the southern coast of Puerto Rico to its main population centers in the north contributed to an 11 -month -old shutdown: the longest electric interruption in the history of the United States.
SINCE LUMA TOOK OVER MANAGEMENT OF BANKRUPT PREPA’s Transmission and Distribution Infrastructure under 15-Year AGREAMENT With Puerto Rico’s Public-Private Partnership Authority In Mid-2021, The Island Has Continued to Experience Service Failures, including An Extensive Outage Following Hurricane In Sephember 2022. Claiming it inherited a poorly designed, managed and Maintained System, Luma has Gradually Made System-Wide upgrades with the Help of More Than $ 12 billion in Fema Financing.
On February 5, 2025, a letter to the authority, the President and CEO of Luma, Juan Saca, made success so far as “replacing 21,600 possession poles with more resistant infrastructure of storms, erasing about 5,500 miles of vegetation overflowing with power lines and installing about 10,000 mice automation devices.” The company also regularly updates its emergency response plan, which “provides comprehensive protocols for responding to disasters and events of electrical utility” and “addressing interruptions caused by natural events, incidents caused by humans and technological causes”.
