Available and Invested Funding

Federal funding to support energy system recovery and modernization in Puerto Rico has been provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and other agencies and departments.

LUMA and Genera have presented spending plans to maintain and repair assets that have an impact on reliability and adequacy. Even with system degradation, the full implementation of the 2025 PREPA Fiscal Plan would address the majority of needs of Puerto Rico’s electric system, improving 2024 reliability metrics by nearly 50%.

Critical maintenance dominates Genera’s proposed spending plan. Due to aging assets, necessary maintenance and repair activities cannot be further delayed.

Source: EnerNex, Review of Puerto Rico Energy System Expense Projections in the 2025 PREPA Fiscal Plan, 2025.

Federal Emergency Management Agency

In Puerto Rico, FEMA funds are managed by the Central Office for Reconstruction, Recovery and Resiliency (COR3): Public Assistance, Hazard Mitigation Assistance, and Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities. FEMA also provides funds to support individual assistance as well as additional administration and operations, which are not managed by COR3. More information is available on COR3’s Transparency Portal Recovery Programs page.

Hurricane Maria

The graphics and table below provide a summary of federal funding for energy-system recovery projects related to Hurricane Maria only, including hazard mitigation funding. 

FEMA describes hazard mitigation assistance as funding for eligible long-term solutions that reduce the impact of disasters in the future. The graphics and table include the total number of projects submitted and approved, as well as the amount of funding allocated and obligated for these projects. 

Recent Disasters

The table below provides a summary of federal funding for energy-system recovery projects related to series of recent natural disasters in Puerto Rico, and permanent work of the energy system. 

The table below shows FEMA funding allocated, obligated, and disbursed by disaster (as of September 10, 2025). (This table does not include hazard mitigation funding, which is provided only for Hurricane Maria and is detailed in the table above showing Hurricane Maria related recovery funding.) 

Federal funding for emergency recovery and restoration work is provided for eligible costs incurred to repair infrastructure damage from federally declared disasters or recognized emergencies. Permanent work funding is provided for eligible and approved projects to repair, restore, or replace a disaster-damaged facility and mitigate potential damage from a future disaster or emergency.

Recent disasters Obligated amount Disbursed amount
Hurricane Irma $12,926,737 $12,926,751
Hurricane Maria $13,351,065,104 $4,827,961,910
2020 Earthquake $377,892,481 $359,102,160
COVID-19 $3,340,513 $3,340,512
Hurricane Fiona $195,110,188 $154,042,854
Total $13,940,335,023 $5,357,374,187
Source: COR3

Definitions:

  • Obligated Funding: A federal authority has signed a contract or made an agreement with a grant recipient. The money is committed but not handed over or spent, yet.
  • Disbursed Funding: A federal authority distributes funds to the grant recipient. The money is transferred to the recipient’s account, and the recipient can use it to complete the project or program for which they were funded.
  • Total Available Funding – Hurricane Maria Public Assistance: When an area has received a Presidential declaration of an emergency or major disaster, FEMA administers Public Assistance grants to enable permanent repairs of disaster-damaged infrastructure. Given the volume of inspections and the time required to finalize cost estimates for the disaster-damaged assets after Hurricane Maria, PREPA, FEMA, and COR3 agreed to use a statistical sampling methodology to arrive at fixed cost estimate. This approach is known as FEMA Accelerated Awards Strategy and provides a fixed amount of available funding for grid recovery activities.
  • Total Available Funding – Hurricane Maria Hazard Mitigation: In addition to Public Assistance funding, FEMA provides discretionary authority to fund mitigation measures in conjunction with the repair of the disaster-damaged facilities. For Hurricane Maria, FEMA arrived at a maximum potential benefit, referred to herein as “total available funding,” based on the FEMA Accelerated Awards Strategy fixed cost estimate and the expected mitigation impacts (e.g., mitigated loss of service) of planned activities.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

HUD provides flexible grants to help cities, counties, and states recover from disasters, especially in low-income areas. HUD funding to support energy system recovery in Puerto Rico is provided through HUD’s Community Development Block Grant (CDGB) Disaster Recovery (DR) and Mitigation (MIT) programs.

CDBG-DR Energy includes a separate fund for Electrical System Enhancements which supports two primary programs:

 

Within the CDBG-MIT program, energy-focused programs include:

  • Community Energy and Water Resilience Installations (CEWRI) Program, which covers 100% of the cost (up to $40,000) per household for the installation of renewable energy and water storage systems on single-family homes in selected communities ($50M allocated)
  • New Energy Program, which covers 100% of the cost (up to $30,000) for installation of renewable energy systems for residents that own a single-family home in which they reside full time for households under 80% of area median family income ($350M allocated)
  • Solar Incentive Program, which covers 30% of the cost (up to $15,000) for the installation of renewable energy systems for residents that own a single-family home in which they reside full time for households that are not low- to moderate-income ($100M allocated)
  • Agro-Energy Stability Program, which provides renewable energy solutions for agribusinesses and farmers to withstand energy instability and challenges and secure food and agriculture sector ($75M allocated; minimum award of $50,000, maximum of $250,000).

 

HUD CDBG-DR and CDBG-MIT funding for Puerto Rico is managed by the Puerto Rico Department of Housing (Vivienda). More information about CDBG-DR and CDBG-MIT funding and programs for Puerto Rico is available on COR’s Transparency Portal Programs page.

U.S. Department of Energy

In February 2023, DOE’s Grid Deployment Office launched the Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund (PR-ERF) to support grid resilience efforts and help the Commonwealth meet 100% of its electricity generation with renewable sources by 2050 (per Act 17-2019 and Act 1-2025). The PR-ERF is managed by the Grid Deployment Office in consultation with FEMA and HUD, and is being developed in consultation with local entities and communities to increase energy resilience and reduce the energy burden of vulnerable residents.

In February 2024, DOE launched the Solar Access Program to connect low-income Puerto Rican households with subsidized residential solar and battery storage systems. This initiative is funded through Topic Area 1 of the PR-ERF FOA. Learn more about the Programa Acceso Solar.

U.S. Department of Energy Emergency Actions

In May 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced it will direct $365 million in funding to address Puerto Rico’s grid resiliency and secure power supply through the Puerto Rico Resilience Fund (PR-ERF). The funding will be deployed to support practical fixes and emergency activities that support the stabilization of the electrical system in Puerto Rico.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright also issued two emergency orders for Puerto Rico, directing PREPA to dispatch generation units necessary to expand baseload generation and maintain grid reliability, and to perform vegetation management.

Other Federal Programs

Additional sources of federal funding for energy system recovery and modernization include the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Solar for All program which is part of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund; and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) and Powering Affordable Clean Energy (PACE) program, which are part of the Inflation Reduction Act.

Resources

Learn about these funding sources and status by visiting the following websites and specific pages.