October 9, 2017

Lt General Jeffrey Buchanan:

The recent disasters triggered by the impact of hurricanes Irma and Mara have demonstrated the dramatic
vulnerabilities and lack of resilience of the Puerto Ricos electric system. These two catastrophic events
have left our island with a completely collapsed system, in which even the infrastructure for supplying
critical services such as water, communications, transportation and food, are still in the dark. We address
you as professors, researchers and members of the National Institute of Energy for Island Sustainability
(INESI) of the University of Puerto Rico. INESI is an interdisciplinary platform that connects and
coordinates more than ninety (90) resources in the eleven (11) campuses of the UPR system, and involves
twenty-three (23) academic disciplines including engineering, social sciences, natural sciences, law and the
humanities.
Our experts have stated in many occasions, including in a letter sent on July 30th directly to the Fiscal
Oversight and Management Board of Puerto Rico (FOMB), the Federal Judge Laura Taylor Swain, and to
the general public in a press release, that the business model of the electric energy sector in Puerto Rico
cannot be sustained with a centralized structure. Furthermore, vulnerabilities of our electric system are
associated to its highly centralized configuration based on fossil fuels and its extensive, inefficient, and
expensive transmission system. Even prior to Hurricanes Irma and Maria, it was stated that the future of
the electric power in Puerto Rico needs to be based on local resources: conservation, efficiency, rooftop
solar power generation and energy storage in houses and buildings. Energy storage is crucial to enable the
transformation to a distributed energy system. All those documents are attached to this letter.
We claim that the current scenario provides an opportunity for the transformation of our electrical system
towards sustainability and resilience. Now is the time for transitioning to a decentralized system based on
distributed generation and microgrids where viable, with extensive use of renewable energy resources and
storage capabilities. However, considering that the electrical system is socio-technical, that physical
infrastructure should be based on a new governance structure, just and collaborative, for a real
democratization of electric power (based on a strong national security and the availability of the electric
power to serve our citizens and the National Security). This new vision of the electrical system for Puerto
Rico will make the Island not only more resilient to emergencies, but also more sustainable during
normalcy periods.
Our electrical infrastructure is essential for the socio-economic development of the island, and has been the
main burden to the local economy for the past forty years. Thus, keeping the same hardware does
transferring it from public to private hands, as has been recently discussed by members of the FOMB, will
not resolve our electricity challenges and definitively will not create a more resilient and sustainable one.
The islands resilience and sustainability requires a profound transformation of the way in which we
generate, transmit and consume electricity.
We in INESI believe that in the pressure to rebuild quickly, the reconstruction will end up reproducing the
same vulnerabilities and lack of resilience that brought us to the current state. Therefore, our researchers,
professors and other members of INESI are ready and willing to deliver the necessary capacity building,
training, expertise and local know-how to guide this transformation at local communities, municipal
governments, and state and federal agencies. We are also eager to collaborate with all sectors of the Puerto
Rican society, inside and outside the island, in the operationalization of this vision through concrete
strategies such as rooftop photovoltaic systems, solar communities, smart metering, solar generation for
water facilities, demand response programs, social acceptance of new technologies and affordable energy
storage, among others.
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We expect you will give this vision an opportunity to come to fruition and will allow us to collaborate in
that process. Please contact us to marla.perez2@upr.edu, cecilio.ortiz@upr.edu, lionel.orama@upr.edu.
You can also contact us at 787-806-8584 and 787-922-9796.

Sincerely,

Dr. Lionel Orama, Professor in Electrical Engineering

Dr. Cecilio Ortiz Garca, Professor in Public Administration
Dr. Marla Prez Lugo, Professor in Environmental Sociology
Dr. Marcel Castro Sitiriche, Professor in Electrical Engineering
Dr. Agustn A. Irizarry-Rivera, Professor in Electrical Engineering
Dr. Efran O'Neill-Carrillo, Professor in Electrical Engineering
Dr. Eduardo I. Ortz-Rivera, Professor in Electrical Engineering
Dr. Pedro Resto Batalla, Professor in Industrial Engineering
Dra. Michele Beauchamp, Professor in Environmental Ethics

National Institute of Energy and Island Sustainability

University of Puerto Rico

VoBo Dr. Darrell F. Hillman

President
University of Puerto Rico

Cc. Brock Long, US FEMA Director

US Sen. Bernie Sanders
US Sen. Luis Gutierrez
US Sen. Jos Serrano
Mr. Jose Carrin, Puerto Ricos Fiscal Oversight and Management Board
Dr. Ricardo Rossell, Governor of Puerto Rico
Ing. Jose Roman Morales, President Commissioner of the Puerto Ricos Energy Commission
Ing. Francisco Rulln, Director of the Puerto Ricos Office of Energy Policy
Ing. Ricardo Ramos, Director of the Puerto Rico Energy and Power Authority
Ing. Manuel Laboy, Secretary of the Department of Economic Development of Puerto Rico
PR Sen. Larry Seilhammer
PR Sen. Evelyn Vazquez
PR Sen. Abel Nazario