The bill passed to privatize the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) does not address the utility’s fate under the bankruptcy process and would create a public energy measure separate from the utility’s proposed integrated resource plan (IRP) that is due in October, Caribbean Business News. As a matter of fact, Siemens, the company hired to create the IRP, which is PREPA’s blueprint for the use of resources for the coming years, began hearings and meetings to receive feedback on the document, which some stakeholders described as a trampled and confusing process because they were not provided any background or information on which to base their opinions. Ramón Luis Nieves, San Juan’s former Popular Democratic Party senator, who is now a lawyer in private practice, said the privatization bill does not even discuss the bankrupt utility’s $9 billion debt. If enacted, the legislation would create a working group that must produce a document within 180 days to define the island’s energy public policy and its regulatory framework. While the government will be able to ascertain the market in which to sell PREPA, the Puerto Rico Energy Commission (PREC) must certify that the sale’s contracts comply with the documents created by the working group.
