Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro R. Pierluisi, along with Housing Department Secretary William Rodríguez Rodríguez, announced a $720 million investment for the development of 20 energy projects under the Energy Reliability and Resilience Program (ER2), which funds projects including centralized power generation, distributed energy sources, microgrids and enabling technologies for the integration of renewable energy.
The investment aims to rebuild the energy infrastructure in Puerto Rico, a key area for the island's socioeconomic development.
The projects include improvements to the electrical grid and repairs to generating plants, with more than 210 projects under construction and about 40 in the design phase, totaling more than $2,400 million in FEMA funds.
In addition, the ER2 program allocates more than $1.3 billion in CDBG-DR funds for the development and interconnection of electricity generation projects. Approximately $730 million has been designated for a competitive process to subsidize projects that promote diversity in energy generation and storage.
The initiative invites participation from public and private entities, both for-profit and nonprofit.
"The request for proposals, which was published in August of last year and closed in January of this year, received 107 proposals for centralized electricity generation projects, for distributed generation and microgrids, and for enabling technology. Over the past months, the Department of Housing evaluated the project proposals under the strict requirements of the CDBG-DR program, as well as the scope and benefit they represent for the communities they serve, the stage of development of each proposal, its impact on recovery and other important factors. The selected entities total 20, which affect 124 localities," the governor added.
What do the selected projects include?
Three come from public or municipal entities, 15 from private for-profit entities, one from a private nonprofit entity and one from a nongovernmental organization. The selected proposals represent a total grant of around $720 million.
Of the estimated CDBG-DR investment, $71.4 million will be used for municipal projects, $634 million for private for-profit entities, $9.4 million for the private nonprofit entity and $4.9 million for the nongovernmental entity.
Pre-selected projects will receive a 100 percent grant for public entities and 60 percent for private entities.
The selected projects represent a step forward in the Island's energy stability, in line with the goals of Puerto Rico's Public Energy Law, which sets targets of 40 percent renewable energy by 2025 and 100 percent by 2050.
Starting in September, the 20 eligible entities will be asked to submit Project Execution Plans and Feasibility Analyses, and projects that pass these reviews will move on to the execution of grant agreements.
"With these projects we are taking another step forward in favor of our Island's energy resilience. These projects will improve our electrical infrastructure and are part of a broad range of housing and revitalization projects being funded with CDBG-DR and CDBG-MIT funds, which are helping to modernize all of Puerto Rico for the benefit of our people," the governor concluded.
This content was translated with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
