Puerto Rico has been immersed in darkness after a power grid failure sparked a blackout across much of the island.

The outage happened in the early hours of Tuesday, the last day of 2024.

While full blackouts are relatively rare on the island, power outages in general have become a regular occurrence in the years since Hurricane Maria devastated the electrical grid in 2017.

Puerto Rico’s governor, Pedro Pierluisi, sought to reassure the island of 3.2 million residents that electricity would be restored soon. He credited the “massive blackout” to a “critical failure” in the power grid.

“We can inform you that work is already underway to restore the service with the San Juan and Palo Seco plants. We are demanding answers and solutions,” he wrote on social media.

The New Year’s Eve blackout cut power to nearly 1.27 million households, out of a total of 1.5 million clients, according to the private energy company LUMA, which is responsible for maintaining the electricity grid.

As of 11:45am local time (15:45 GMT), LUMA reported that only 13.5 percent of its clients had access to power.

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The company explained in a social media post that the source of the blackout initially appeared to be “a fault on an underground line”. That, in turn, sparked an island-wide outage at around 5:30am local time (9:30 GMT).

“The cause of the fault remains under investigation,” LUMA wrote in its post.

“We have already begun the restoration process for some customers, and the full process will take between 24 and 48 hours, conditions permitting.”

Puerto Rico’s energy grid has been the source of frustration for residents for years, even inspiring the pop star Bad Bunny to write an ode to the island called El Apagón or The Blackout.

The Puerto Rican musician has been an outspoken critic of LUMA, a joint venture held by Canadian and United States companies.

Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, also weighed in on the New Year’s Eve blackout on his Instagram Stories: “This is how you spend New Year’s Eve in Puerto Rico, without electricity. Normal.”

LUMA took over for the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), a government-run power provider, in 2020 after the latter filed for bankruptcy.

But LUMA itself has faced multiple protests, with concerns raised over the cost of its services and the nature of the company’s contract with the government. Some say its terms are tilted in favour of LUMA, with few protections for everyday Puerto Ricans.

Governor-elect Jenniffer González Colón, who is set to succeed Pierluisi on January 2, has indicated she will consider appointing an “energy czar” to review LUMA’s actions and consider other energy providers.

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The crisis with Puerto Rico’s power grid hit a breaking point in 2017, when Hurricane Maria, a powerful Category 4 storm, crashed into the island.

Not only was it the deadliest storm to hit Puerto Rico, but it also demolished the island’s ageing electrical grid, creating further life-threatening conditions. Power outages have been chronic in its aftermath.

US Representative Adriano Espaillat of New York, a Dominican American, weighed in on the legacy of Hurricane Maria as he called for reform.

“Since the devastating Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico’s energy grid has remained costly, unstable, and unreliable, failing the Puerto Rican people at every turn,” Espaillat wrote.

The US considers Puerto Rico an unincorporated territory, and Espaillat called on outgoing US President Joe Biden to do more to prop up the island’s ailing infrastructure.

“Despite billions of dollars allocated by the Biden Administration to rebuild, much of the funding remains unutilized, leaving Puerto Rico to face another year in darkness. Bold and immediate action is needed to address this crisis before it’s too late,” he said.

But some residents who spoke to The Associated Press on Tuesday morning expressed resignation about the ongoing power outages.

“They’re part of my everyday life,” Enid Núñez, 49, told the news agency as she ate breakfast.

She had cooked the meal on a gas stove, bought especially for such situations.