SEPA CEO Julia Hamm: Rebuilding Puerto Rico’s Power System Will Be a Defining Industry Challenge in 2018

Media contact: K Kaufmann, 202-379-1637 or [email protected]

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Julia Hamm, President and CEO of the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA), has been named as one of the 11 founding members of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s (PREPA) Transformation Advisory Council (TAC). She is also on the Steering Committee for the Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Working Group convened by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to prepare a report on rebuilding and transforming the island’s power system, which was devastated by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in September.

Hamm has released the following statement on the formation of the PREPA TAC and the release of the Working Group’s “Building Back Better” report.

“The destruction of Puerto Rico’s power system is clearly one of 2017’s defining events for the U.S. electric power industry—a challenge we must answer. Similarly, the efforts now being undertaken by PREPA and its TAC, the Working Group, and other key stakeholders will be a defining driver for innovation in system design and resilience in 2018. The breadth of expertise and commitment on the TAC is an enormous resource in and of itself.

“My recent visit to Puerto Rico—talking with people who deeply understand the unique circumstances on the island—underlined the need for a broad, ambitious but pragmatic vision for rebuilding the island’s power system. I saw so many possibilities for the use of distributed energy resources— including microgrids—to provide solutions to both short-term restoration and long-term system resilience.”