- Bad Bunny used his 2026 Super Bowl halftime show to spotlight Puerto Rico’s failing electricity grid by incorporating imagery of line workers and power lines into his performance.
- The artist’s choreography provided a visceral, accessible form of communication about energy insecurity, bypassing dry policy debates to reach a global audience.
- Puerto Rico’s grid remains among the least reliable in the U.S., with residents facing high electricity costs and frequent, prolonged outages.
The State of Puerto Rico’s Energy Grid
- Since 2017's Hurricane Maria, the island’s infrastructure has struggled with recurring crises, receiving an 'F' grade from the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2019.
- Between 2021 and 2024, customers faced approximately 27 hours of outages annually excluding major storms; in 2024, this rose to over 70 hours including storm-related interruptions.
- The system relies on centralized fossil-fuel plants in the south, requiring power to travel through vulnerable mountainous terrain to reach northern population centers.
Challenges and Transformation
- The privatization of the grid under LUMA Energy has faced significant public backlash due to continued outages and rising costs.
- The utility provider, PREPA, is burdened by billions in debt, complicating essential infrastructure upgrades.
- Despite institutional hurdles, the island is seeing a shift toward decentralization: as of mid-2025, over one gigawatt of rooftop solar capacity has been installed.
- Community-led initiatives, such as Casa Pueblo in Adjuntas, are successfully utilizing solar microgrids to ensure local resilience when the central grid fails.
Impact of Cultural Storytelling
- Experts emphasize that Bad Bunny’s approach succeeded where traditional climate communication often fails by making abstract infrastructure tangible.
- By framing the struggle as a human experience—showing workers and the reality of life in the dark—the performance forced a global conversation on a topic that is usually invisible to the public.