RAND: Puerto Rico’s grid still blocks recovery, growth
Puerto Rico’s electric power system has not recovered from the 2017 hurricanes, and its continued poor performance is weighing on the island’s economy and residents’ well-being, according to a new report by RAND.
The report, “Priority Recommendations for Puerto Rico to Promote Well-Being and Economic Growth,” sponsored by the Puerto Rico Department of Housing, found that while some policy areas have returned to pre-disaster norms, they continue to face long-standing challenges that predate hurricanes María and Irma.
RAND said investments are needed to address persistent Medicare and Medicaid funding shortfalls, upgrade electronic health record systems, strengthen emergency preparedness and ensure adequate staffing levels in public safety agencies.
The report also found Puerto Rico’s public education system to be in crisis, citing weak student outcomes and an oversized teaching workforce. Teachers miss, on average, more than 36 school days per year, while resources continue to support staffing levels misaligned with enrollment and performance.
“Difficult reforms will be needed to right-size the system and improve student outcomes,” the report said, adding that many changes could be made without additional investment and may generate savings.
RAND made the following recommendations aimed at addressing challenges throughout sectors.
- Prioritize efforts to rebuild the energy sector and improve grid reliability.
- Strengthen Puerto Rico’s economy and fiscal position, particularly by strengthening the energy sector, to enable needed reforms in other policy areas.
- Address long-standing systemic challenges by right-sizing the public education system to bring student-teacher ratios in line with those of other large U.S. districts.
- Target health care funding formula changes to those that uniquely disadvantage Puerto Rico and can be accomplished without federal legislative action.
- Improve the collection and sharing of robust public health data.
- Work to end the Puerto Rico Police Bureau’s consent decree.
- Address policies and funding levels that hinder recruitment and retention of public safety personnel.
- Shift public safety and emergency management positions from political appointment to career civil service to improve resilience amid political changes.
- Improve the quality of the emergency preparedness workforce.
RAND emphasized that although each policy area can be addressed individually, the reliability of the electric grid underpins progress elsewhere.
Improving the reliability of the electric grid is foundational to efforts to improve economic growth,” the report said.
Given the central role of energy, the report urges the Government of Puerto Rico to focus on improving electric power infrastructure while also addressing policy decisions that affect system performance. RAND said physical infrastructure alone will not resolve the problem.
“Policies enacted by the [Government of Puerto Rico] do not reflect the urgent needs of the electric power sector,” the report said. “On the contrary, many policies are likely to undermine reliability.” The authors recommended rebalancing policy priorities to place far greater emphasis on system reliability.
In 2023, the Government of Puerto Rico asked RAND to assess recovery progress following hurricanes Maria and Irma and to recommend policies to accelerate that recovery. The study examined multiple policy areas tied to the island’s social, economic and governance outcomes.
The research was sponsored by the Puerto Rico Department of Housing through a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and conducted through RAND’s Disaster Management and Resilience Program within its Homeland Security Research Division.
RAND is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization based in Santa Monica, California. The RAND School of Public Policy is the oldest and largest public policy doctoral program in the U.S. and also offers master’s degrees in policy analysis, national security policy and technology policy.
