Luma Energy

Luma Energy is a joint venture between Quanta Services Corporation the Canadian power and ATCO, which was selected by the government, Puerto Rico to manage the electricity grid from its previous state electricity company PREPA

History

2021: Hacker attack, substation fire

In early June 2021, the main electricity supplier in Puerto Rico, Luma Energy, suffered from a cyber attack. After the attack at the substation in San Juan, a fire began, due to which hundreds of thousands of local residents lost electricity.

According to Luma Energy, unknown attackers launched an attack on the Mi Luma DDoS portal, and the mobile application also failed. Energy consumers could not sign in to their accounts and even inform the company about the lack of electricity. According to the head of Luma Energy, the attack was noticed a few hours before the fire at the substation.

A cyber attack was committed on Luma Energy, after which a fire occurred at the substation

The fire left 900,000 inhabitants of Puerto Rico without electricity, but residents of the region had problems with electricity consumption and access to accounts before. Some regions experience interruptions almost daily.

It is known that Luma Energy took responsibility for the supply of energy for Puerto Rico only in early June 2021. Earlier, Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) acted as a provider, which desperately fought blackouts, bankruptcy and general inefficient management after Hurricane Maria in 2017.

Authorities urged residents to remain patient during the period of management transition over the power supply system to Luma Energy, which inherited the fragile electrical infrastructure. The FBI office in San Juan is investigating cyber attacks, there is no information about the possible connection of the cyber attack with the fire.^[1]

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