The U.S. territory has passed the “Ley de Política Pública Energética de Puerto Rico” or Public Energy Policy Law of Puerto Rico on March 25, which among other energy reforms will set a 100 percent renewable portfolio standard by 2050. The measure, introduced by Senator Larry Seilhamer Rodríguez, a member of the New Progressive Party, and Senator Eduardo Bhatia of the Popular Democratic Party, received widespread bi-partisan support and passed the Puerto Rican Senate with 21 votes to 4. The bill now waits to be signed into law by Governor Ricardo Rosselló, who has been a proponent of more renewable energy to boost resilience in the wake of Hurricane María.
The bill puts the U.S. territory in the same group as Hawaii, California and Washington D.C., which have also approved 100 percent renewable energy goals. PS 1121 establishes targets of at least 20 percent renewable energy by 2025, 50 percent by 2040 and 100 percent by 2050. In addition, the bill “eradicates” the use of coal for electricity generation by 2028, slashes the approval time for utility solar projects, greatly simplifies the interconnection procedures for rooftop solar systems under 25 kilowatts, creates tax exemptions for solar and energy storage equipment and protects net metering for five years.
The law also requires that the island’s utility, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, purchase renewable energy credits from solar installations to meet the renewable energy goal. Last May, the Puerto Rico Energy Commission asked the utility to file an updated IRP ahead of the March 2020 schedule to reflect possible changes in demand and generation as a result of hurricanes Irma and Maria, which devastated the island’s power grid in 2017. The commission determined the need to update the 20-year resource plan before the mandatory three-year review date, in order to assess any effects from the hurricanes on the island’s electric market. In January 2018, in the wake of the hurricanes, the commission proposed rules to encourage microgrids to facilitate quicker power restoration and to integrate more renewable energy supplies to strengthen the system’s resilience to disruptions.
Puerto Rico has a long way to go to make this goal a reality. According to the EIA, in 2017 expensive petroleum imports were still used to generate just under half of the island’s electricity, and natural gas supplied nearly one-third. Coal continued to supply about one-sixth of electricity, while renewables supplied about 2.4 percent.
