Competition can support Puerto Rico’s future

The aftermath of hurricanes Irma and Maria essentially sealed PR Electric Power Authority’s (PREPA) fate, at least in its current legal form. The magnitude of the physical destruction experienced both by its generation capacity and its distribution networks renewed historical calls for its privatization. That possibility now seems irreversible, particularly given the Fiscal Oversight Board’s (FOB) drive to impose austerity across the public sector and the government’s market-friendliness inclination. However, not all privatization processes are the same and, by extension, not all lead to the same outcome. This issue of Pulse presents a novel approach to privatization—one based on the controlled introduction of competition in regional markets. The approach described herein has been successfully applied elsewhere. More importantly, it is designed to align electricity generation with PR’s changing socioeconomic landscape at zero cost to the government, consumers and businesses. Sometimes, privatization does work.