Puerto Rico 

Territory Profile and Energy Estimates

Profile Analysis Print Territory Energy Profile

(overview, data, & analysis)

Last Updated: December 18, 2013

Overview

The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico consists of the easternmost islands of the Greater

Antilles in the Caribbean Sea, southeast of Florida. The commonwealth's main island, Puerto

Rico, has coastal plains, sandy beaches, and a forested and mountainous interior, with the

highest peak exceeding 4,000 feet. Rivers coursing through the mountains offer hydropower

potential. The tropical marine climate has little seasonal variation; temperatures average

about 80 degrees Fahrenheit all year. The hurricane season runs from June to November.

The population is concentrated on Puerto Rico, with smaller populations on Vieques and

Culebra. There are smaller but uninhabited islands scattered around the main island. The

islands' population has been just under 4 million and decreasing. Puerto Ricans are U.S.

citizens, and emigration, mainly to the U.S. mainland, increased in the recent recession.

Agriculture, mainly sugarcane, dominated Puerto Rico's economy until the middle of the 20th century. While rum is still produced, sugar

cane is no longer raised in Puerto Rico, and agriculture has become a minor part of the economy. Manufacturing now leads the private

sector, with industries including pharmaceuticals and medical devices, electronics, aviation, and renewable energy. Manufacturing has

been attracted to Puerto Rico in part by special federal and commonwealth tax benefits. Tourism is also important to the economy, as is

government, which employs nearly one in three workers. Puerto Rico produces no conventional fuels. Like most Caribbean islands, it

relies heavily on imported petroleum to meet its energy needs. On average, the islands' residents use much less energy than mainland

consumers. Puerto Rico's energy intensity is typically just over two-thirds of U.S. energy intensity, and the territory's energy

consumption per capita is less than two-fifths of U.S. consumption.

Petroleum

More than four-fifths of the energy used in Puerto Rico comes from petroleum. The islands neither produce nor refine petroleum, so all

petroleum products are imported, shipped in through the ports of San Juan, Humacao, Guayanilla, and Ponce. Residual fuel oil makes

up about one-third of imports, and motor gasoline is about one-fourth. Other petroleum products imported include jet fuel, distillate fuels,

and small amounts of liquefied petroleum fuels and kerosene. The last of Puerto Rico's five petroleum refineries, located at Yabucoa,

was shut in 2009, joining four other island refineries closed between 1992 and 2005. The Yabacoa site is being used as a motor

gasoline terminal.

The electric power and transportation sectors are the largest petroleum consumers. Puerto Rico allows use of conventional motor

gasoline. About two-thirds of petroleum-based electricity generating capacity consumes No. 6 residual fuel oil, and one-third consumes

No. 2 diesel fuel. Despite the commonwealth's overall low energy consumption, Puerto Rico's per capita petroleum consumption is about

four-fifths of the U.S. average, primarily because of its dependence on residual fuel oil and diesel fuel for two-thirds of the islands'

electricity.

Puerto Ricans use

less than

two-fifths the

energy per capita

that mainland

Americans use.

U.S. Energy Information Administration - EIA - Independent Statistics and... http://www.eia.gov/state/analysis.cfm?sid=RQ

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Natural gas

Puerto Rico does not produce natural gas. All natural gas is imported as liquefied natural gas

(LNG) through the Peñuelas terminal and regasification facility at Guayanilla Bay. The facility

was built to supply the 540-megawatt EcoEléctrica generating plant there on the

southwestern coast. LNG is imported mainly from Trinidad and Tobago. Natural gas is

consumed only in electricity production, and Puerto Rico's per capita natural gas

consumption is less than one-tenth of the U.S. average. However, LNG imports are

increasing, and a second terminal is planned at the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority

(PREPA) generating station at Aguirre, on the southeastern coast. The LNG imports will

support PREPA plans to convert oil-fired generating stations to dual-fuel capability with

natural gas, in order to lower fuel costs and meet federal emissions standards. The first

conversion, the Costa Sur (South Coast) station in Guayanilla, is being supplied with natural

gas from the Peñuelas terminal.

PREPA plans originally called for a pipeline to take natural gas from that terminal to the north coast, where three PREPA petroleum-fired

generating stations are located. But public opposition arose to routing the pipeline through the island's rugged central mountains, and

the plan was dropped after officials found the terminal could not handle all of PREPA's expected natural gas needs. PREPA has now

contracted for installation of a floating terminal with regasification capability 4 miles offshore from Aguirre, which is its largest generating

station at 1,500 megawatts. PREPA is assessing whether natural gas can be transported from the Aguirre terminal to its three north

coast generating plants, or if a second terminal on the north coast is possible. PREPA is exploring using U.S.-origin LNG if it becomes

available.

Coal

Puerto Rico produces no coal. The island has one coal-fired electricity generating plant, at Guayama. The plant uses circulating

fluidized-bed combustion and began operation in 2002. Typically, 1.6 million short tons of coal are imported annually from Colombia to

supply the 454-megawatt plant. Ash from coal combustion is recycled on site into a partially solidified aggregate that is used in asphalt

and concrete for road construction and other applications.

Electricity

Puerto Rico's electricity is supplied by PREPA, a government agency that owns the electric

distribution system for the main island, Vieques, and Culabra, as well as all but two

generating stations. PREPA (in Spanish, Autoridad de Energía Eléctrica, or AEE) began in

the 1920s as a government irrigation system, but its responsibilities grew over the years to

encompass island electrification. Puerto Rico typically gets two-thirds of its electricity from

petroleum, generated mainly at six stations with steam turbines, combustion turbines, and/or

combined cycle technology. The balance of PREPA power supply is almost evenly divided

between natural gas and coal generation, with a small fraction from hydroelectric generators.

The natural gas- and coal-fired plants are owned and operated by two independent power

producers who sell their output to PREPA on long-term contracts.

High world petroleum prices have driven typical Puerto Rico power prices to two to three

times the U.S. average, and PREPA is planning to add natural gas capability at its five

largest petroleum-burning plants. The first natural gas conversion, at the Costa Sur (South

Coast) station in Guayanilla, is operating, but other conversions depend on construction of LNG import terminals and gas distribution

infrastructure. Puerto Rico, the nearby U.S. Virgin Islands, and U.S. federal agencies are exploring the potential for interconnecting the

isolated island grids with each other, and with other Caribbean islands, with an eye toward a possible Caribbean-wide grid. A wider grid

Puerto Rico is

increasing LNG

imports to

displace

petroleum in

electricity

generation.

The cost of

imported

petroleum has

driven Puerto Rico

electricity prices

to more than

twice the U.S.

average.

U.S. Energy Information Administration - EIA - Independent Statistics and... http://www.eia.gov/state/analysis.cfm?sid=RQ

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could lower costs and enable the use of more renewable energy. PREPA gets close to half of its electricity revenues from commercial

sector consumption and just over one-third from residential consumption. Per capita, Puerto Rico's electricity consumption is about

two-fifths of the U.S. average.

Renewable energy

Puerto Rico has enacted a Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard requiring PREPA to get 12% of its electricity from renewable sources

starting in 2015, scaling up to 15% by 2020 and 20% by 2035. Technologies meeting the standard include hydroelectric, solar

photovoltaic (PV), wind, geothermal, biomass including municipal solid waste, and ocean and tidal energy generation. Only about 1% of

Puerto Rico's electricity has been coming from renewable energy sources, all from hydroelectricity. Puerto Rico has 21 hydroelectric

generating units, which were built beginning in 1915 and are sited on reservoirs that often supply drinking and irrigation water as well as

electricity.

To meet the renewable electricity standard, PREPA is focusing on wind, solar, and wasteto-energy projects. The utility has signed long-term power purchase agreements with

renewable energy developers for about 1,000 megawatts of renewable capacity, which could

supply enough renewably sourced electricity to meet the 2015 portfolio standard if all the

projects are built. The first of those utility-scale renewable energy projects began to come

into operation in 2012. A 24-megawatt solar PV plant at Guayama, managed by the same

company that owns Puerto Rico's coal plant, and a 26-megawatt solar PV plant at Loiza

initiated operations. A 95-megawatt wind farm at Santa Isabel became both Puerto Rico's first

operating wind generator and the largest wind facility in the Caribbean. A 23-megawatt wind

project at Punta de Lima, Naguabo, also started up in 2012.

More than 400 megawatts of solar PV and 250 megawatts of wind are in development.

Studies so far show Puerto Rico has limited potential for large-scale wind projects. But

Puerto Rico has taken advantage of the tropical sun and become a leader in distributed solar applications, including solar hot water

heaters and PV. The government has used weatherization assistance programs to install more than 11,000 solar hot water heaters.

Those appliances, along with tax benefits to small-scale PV electricity projects, have reduced electric load by more than 40 megawatts.

No municipal solid waste or other waste-to-energy facilities have yet been built, but PREPA has signed more than a dozen power

purchase agreements with developers. Many of those facilities have run into local opposition, but waste-to-energy projects have taken

on new urgency since the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board issued an order that will shut most of the island's landfills by 2014.

For the longer term, Puerto Rico has been exploring the use of biofuels, primarily those derived from agricultural wastes, and is

investigating technologies that could harvest energy from the waves, currents, and ocean depths surrounding the island.

l

Puerto Rico is

focusing on wind,

solar, and wasteto-energy projects

to fill its

renewable

portfolio.

U.S. Energy Information Administration - EIA - Independent Statistics and... http://www.eia.gov/state/analysis.cfm?sid=RQ

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