The Department of Energy’s Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund (PR-ERF), established by Congress in 2023, is now being implemented by DOE’s Office of Electricity with a sharpened focus on strengthening Puerto Rico’s electric system as a whole. Guided by recent DOE assessments, planning analyses, and meetings with stakeholders; DOE is redirecting funds toward practical grid and generation improvements that can measurably reduce outages, increase firm capacity, and speed restoration for customers across the island.
The Q&As below explain how recent changes and DOE efforts will increase and advance affordability, reliability, and security for the electricity grid.
A1: To deliver the fastest, largest, and most durable reliability improvements for the greatest number of Puerto Ricans and provide a quicker end to the energy emergency. By prioritizing PR-ERF funds to repair power plants, replace failed transformers, restore key transmission corridors, modernize substations, and automate distribution feeders, DOE aims to:
- Reduce the frequency and duration of outages across the entire island, not just for households that receive a PR-ERF funded rooftop system.
- Increase firm, dispatchable capacity and planning reserves so the system can meet peak demand and withstand equipment failures without cascading blackouts.
- Shorten recovery time after major events by having a more resilient energy system.
In short, the program is about stabilizing the electricity system so that all 3.2 million residents, including low income and medically vulnerable households, experience more reliable power. In comparison, previous priorities were limited to helping thousands of customers at the edge of a failing system.
- Reduce the frequency and duration of outages across the entire island, not just for households that receive a PR-ERF funded rooftop system.
A2: Investments will remain in Puerto Rico to benefit all Puerto Ricans. DOE is redirecting PR-ERF funds to high-impact, system level projects that directly address Puerto Rico’s reliability crisis and the national energy emergency. To date, DOE has redirected $368.7 million federal grant to PREPA (DEGD0001048, “Electric Grid Resilience Stabilization”), with $3.7 million in local cost share, focused on near term reliability improvements through ten projects executed by companies LUMA and Genera:
- Support for Deployment of Advanced Metering Infrastructure
- Stabilization of Substations
- Transmission corridor repairs restoring out-of-service power flow paths.
- Switchgear modernization at two critical load substations.
- Improvement to automation and protection equipment which will reduce false and cascading trips.
- System stabilization and modernization activities to reduce risk of cascading events.
- Improvement to aerial platforms to better identify issues with transmission facilities.
- Mitigation of overloading issues at utility poles.
- Repairs to baseload generation.
- Fuel supply security between San Juan and Palo Seco
These projects are designed to measurably reduce outages, increase firm capacity and planning reserves, and shorten recovery times for all residents of Puerto Rico. These projects will address issues which are not able to be addressed by FEMA funds due to eligibility or timelines. DOE will be able to impact all low- and moderate-income households and households including individuals with disabilities within this broader, whole grid resilience strategy.
A3: DOE did not make this decision lightly. Despite many years of federal investment, the Puerto Rico grid still faces an acute reliability emergency. More than three million people who depend on the Puerto Rico grid experience a significant number of electricity outages throughout the year. Early in 2025, Governor González Colón declared an electricity system emergency and DOE issued multiple federal emergency orders to address energy shortfalls. After a comprehensive review, updated grid reliability data, and the emergency directives, DOE concluded that continuing to devote PR-ERF dollars to rooftop solar projects would exacerbate reliability issues with the distribution grid and only cover a very small segment of the population. Redirecting these funds to stabilize the electricity system would benefit far more customers, far more quickly, and far more effectively than under the previous program plan.
A4: The funds will remain in Puerto Rico to benefit all Puerto Ricans. DOE is working diligently with stakeholders in Puerto Rico to identify priority projects with high-impact and lack of existing Federal funding. The projects will likely cover improvements to the system which are aligned with PR-ERF’s goal to improve the resilience of the Puerto Rico electricity system.
A5: More than 6,000 low- and moderate-income households and households including individuals with disabilities have already received systems under PR-ERF, and those installations remain in place.
A6: Many—but not all—pending projects will move forward. Their completion will depend on many factors and potential recipients will need to direct their questions to the project performer.
Under federal procurement rules, DOE provided that any system for which solar-ready repairs or installation had begun prior to DOE’s termination decision could be completed and invoiced as allowable costs.
In parallel, the Sunnova bankruptcy affects what can be completed under existing contracts regardless of DOE’s decisions and may delay or prevent some installations under those business arrangements.
A7: Yes. DOE’s actions were taken under express terms in the cooperative agreements and under applicable federal regulations and Department policy.
A8: Yes. DOE notified Congress and OMB of key reallocations and award structure decisions, including a January 6, 2026, notification to Congress regarding the reallocation of rooftop solar funds to practical generation and grid fixes. DOE continues to keep Congress up to date on PR-ERF implementation.