Hardening Puerto Rico - Transforming Our Grid

In this episode of Grid Talk, host Marty Rosenberg talks with
Shay Bahramirad who is the  vice president of T&D,
strategy, and sustainability at LUMA and president of the IEEE
Power & Engineering Society. The discussion focuses on
rebuilding the grid in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017
and how the world is pivoting to a new electric grid.


Bahramirad is the point person helping to rebuild the grid in
Puerto Rico and and go beyond what existed prior to Hurricane
Maria. The federal government has earmarked $16 billion to Puerto
Rico for grid related work.


“From that total $16 billion dollars, we have initiated over $13
billion dollars of scope of work and over $4 billion dollars of
it is approved by FEMA and over $1.2 billion dollars has been
constructed in the grid. That includes everything from poles that
they would withstand 160 miles per hour winds to modernization of
substations,” said Bahramirad. 


Part of the rebuild is making the grid more reliable for
customers.


“It also suffered from decades of under investments and lack of
maintenance that led customers and citizens of Puerto Rico to
experience outages three times more frequently than any other
utility in the United States. “


“We got to work. The frequency of outages experienced by
customers has gone down by about 25% since we started.”


As for changes confronting IEEE Power & Engineering Society
members, utilities, and customers – the organization is focused
on building the electrical grid of the future and making sure all
the players are working in unison.


“It’s an unprecedented time to be in this industry and the
challenges that we deal with cannot wait for a decade to
coordinate.”


Dr. Bahramirad is a leading figure in the industry. She is the
President of the IEEE Power and Energy Society, an editorial
board member of the Electricity Journal, a US CIGRE Executive
member, an adjunct professor at the Illinois Institute of
Technology, and the founder of IEEE Women in Power. Dr.
Bahramirad completed her PhD in electrical engineering at the
Illinois Institute of Technology.