Puerto Rico’s stalled battery storage push is finally moving. Here’s what its BESS programme teaches utilities, developers, and investors about real‑world green grids.
Puerto Rico’s battery story is a warning and a roadmap at the same time.
An island that still remembers the weeks and months without power after Hurricane Maria is now under regulatory orders to accelerate battery energy storage systems (BESS) across its grid. On paper, this Accelerated Battery Energy Storage Addition Programme (ASAP) should already be delivering cleaner, more reliable electricity. In reality, it’s been stuck in delay, developer silence, and bureaucratic friction.
The recent move by the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau (PREB) to force progress on ASAP matters far beyond the island. It shows what it actually takes to turn green technology plans into steel in the ground, and how storage, policy, and smart operations have to work together.
For anyone building, financing, or relying on green technology—especially battery storage—Puerto Rico is a live case study in what to copy and what to avoid.
Why Puerto Rico is racing to deploy battery energy storage
Puerto Rico is being pushed toward large-scale BESS by hard reality: you can’t run a modern, resilient, low‑carbon grid on fragile wires and inflexible fossil plants.
After multiple hurricanes and chronic reliability issues, the island adopted an Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) that calls for around 1,500MW of battery storage as part of its transition away from imported fossil fuels. ASAP is the fast‑track mechanism to get a big chunk of that storage installed at existing generation sites operated under power purchase and operating agreements (PPOAs).
Here’s the basic structure:
- PREPA owns generation, transmission and distribution assets.
- Luma Energy operates the grid under contract.
- Independent power producers (IPPs) run existing plants under PPOAs with PREPA.
- PREB, the regulator, oversees all of them and enforces energy policy.
ASAP’s idea is simple: those IPPs add battery energy storage to their sites “on an accelerated basis,” using standardised contracts, so the grid gets new flexible capacity without waiting years for greenfield projects or big network upgrades.
This matters because BESS isn’t just a backup battery. Used properly, storage can:
- Stabilise a weak grid with fast frequency response and voltage support.
- Shift solar output from midday peaks to evening demand.
- Reduce blackouts by providing operating reserves and black‑start capability.
- Cut emissions by replacing expensive, polluting peaker plants.
If you care about green technology that actually works under stress—storms, peak demand, transmission failures—storage has to move from “pilot project” to “core infrastructure.” Puerto Rico is right in the middle of that shift.
What went wrong with ASAP—and how PREB is forcing progress
The reality so far: ASAP hasn’t been very “accelerated.”
Luma identified a first phase of projects in early 2024 that could start quickly, with minimal cost and no major network upgrades. Some developers said their BESS units could be operating in under 12 months, with contracts targeted for execution by April 2025.
By August 2025, almost nothing had moved.
- Only one developer (Ecoeléctrica) was actively working to complete documentation.
- Three others—San Fermín, Horizon, and Oriana—didn’t respond at all to PREPA’s outreach.
- PREB called these delays “extremely concerning,” given the island’s ongoing generation shortfall.
PREB’s response was blunt and, frankly, exactly what more regulators should do in similar situations:
- It ordered the four developers to explain their lack of responsiveness.
- It warned that fines would follow if they didn’t comply with information requests.
- It pushed Luma to finalise standard agreements and get them moving through PREPA’s board and the island’s Financial Oversight and Management Board (FOMB).
In November 2025, Luma finally submitted the four final ASAP agreements to PREPA’s governing board, and PREB issued a resolution and order requiring PREPA to complete the review process with the FOMB.
The regulator also confirmed that:
The 1,500MW of BESS in the IRP is a guideline, not a hard cap.
That clarification is bigger than it looks. It tells developers, investors, and grid planners that if more storage makes sense technically and economically, the door is open. PREB reserves the right to increase or decrease that level—but won’t block viable projects just because they cross a planning number.
From a green technology perspective, this is healthy regulation: clear rules, defined authority, and flexibility where technology and markets are moving quickly.
Inside the contracts: risk, pass‑throughs, and developer behaviour
Whenever a storage deployment gets stuck, it’s almost never about the physics of batteries. It’s about contracts, risk allocation, and who gets paid for what.
PREB approved Luma’s four draft agreements as consistent with Puerto Rico’s Energy Public Policy and IRP, but not everyone on the commission agreed with the details. Commissioner Mateo Santos concurred in part and dissented in part, specifically over pass‑through concepts in the contracts.
“I do not agree with the pass-through concepts included in the contracts under the ASAP programme, and therefore I dissent on that aspect.”
Pass‑through clauses typically allow certain costs—fuel, taxes, some regulatory changes, or even portions of capex/opex—to be passed directly to ratepayers rather than absorbed by project sponsors. From an investor’s standpoint, they de‑risk projects. From a public-interest standpoint, they can quietly shift cost and performance risk onto customers.
Here’s what I’ve seen work best in other markets:
- Clear performance obligations for BESS: availability guarantees, response times, and penalties for underperformance.
- Limited, well‑defined pass‑throughs tied to truly uncontrollable events (e.g., tax changes), not routine business risk.
- Transparent rate impacts, so regulators and the public understand how storage costs compare to alternatives like diesel peakers.
The partial dissent in Puerto Rico is a reminder for anyone drafting storage PPAs or standard offers: if the deal is too generous on pass‑throughs, regulators will eventually push back. And if it’s too one‑sided against developers, projects simply won’t reach financial close.
Interestingly, Polaris Renewable Energy seems to have read this landscape well. In August, Polaris submitted a standard offer BESS agreement (SO1) under the ASAP scheme and, in doing so, positioned itself as a more responsive and bankable counterpart than developers who hadn’t delivered or even replied.
For green tech companies, there’s a clear lesson: being organised, responsive, and realistic on risk is now a competitive advantage, not a nice‑to‑have.
How AI and digital tools can fix the “paper bottleneck” in green projects
ASAP’s biggest delays haven’t come from battery factories or engineering constraints. They’ve come from contracting, coordination, and compliance. That’s exactly where AI and digitalisation can have outsized impact.
Here’s how AI-enabled green technology tools could speed up a programme like ASAP—and yours:
1. AI‑assisted grid and storage planning
Instead of manually screening potential BESS sites, AI can:
- Analyse load patterns, outage history, and renewable profiles.
- Simulate different storage sizes and configurations across the grid.
- Prioritise projects that deliver the fastest reliability and emissions benefits with the lowest network upgrade costs.
Luma’s identification of “Phase 1 projects” that needed no major upgrades is exactly the kind of task AI planning assistants can support, turning months of studies into weeks.
2. Contract intelligence and standardisation
Standard offers and PPAs still get bogged down in manual review. AI contract tools can:
- Flag risky pass‑through language or missing performance guarantees.
- Compare new drafts against approved templates and regulatory requirements.
- Generate redlined versions aligned with PREB rules in minutes.
For a utility or IPP portfolio, this means fewer surprises at the regulator level and a smoother path to board and oversight approvals.
3. Automated compliance tracking and reporting
PREB’s frustration with developers who didn’t respond isn’t unique. Many green projects stall because key milestones slip without visibility.
A basic AI‑driven compliance layer can:
- Track obligations and deadlines from resolutions and orders.
- Trigger escalating alerts when developers or operators miss milestones.
- Auto‑compile status reports for regulators and oversight boards.
This isn’t fancy; it’s just good process, powered by software that doesn’t forget, lose emails, or overlook a filing.
4. Operational optimisation once BESS is online
Once batteries are installed, AI takes on a different role—turning storage into a smart, revenue‑generating grid asset:
- Optimising when to charge/discharge against price signals and system needs.
- Forecasting solar and demand to reduce curtailment and use fewer fossil units.
- Predicting maintenance needs before they hurt availability.
For Puerto Rico, where every megawatt of reliable capacity counts, AI‑optimised storage could be the difference between rolling blackouts and a stable low‑carbon grid during peak season.
Practical lessons for utilities, developers, and investors
Puerto Rico’s BESS journey sits at the intersection of green technology, policy, and execution risk. If you’re planning or funding storage or hybrid renewables, there are clear takeaways.
For utilities and grid operators
- Treat storage as core infrastructure, not an add‑on. Integrate BESS into your resource plans with explicit roles: reserves, ramping, capacity, and resilience.
- Push for clear regulatory signals. PREB’s clarification that 1,500MW is a guideline gives planners breathing room. Ask your regulator for similar clarity.
- Use AI for scenario planning. Model high‑renewables, high‑storage futures now, rather than reacting to curtailment and instability later.
For project developers and IPPs
- Responsiveness is capital. Ecoeléctrica and Polaris now look more credible than peers that went silent. Regulators and off‑takers remember who shows up.
- Standardisation wins. Align early with standard offer agreements and regulator‑approved risk structures instead of starting from scratch every time.
- Invest in digital workflows. Contract automation, structured data rooms, and compliance dashboards are now part of serious project development.
For investors and lenders
- Look beyond technology risk. Batteries work; the bigger risks are policy, permitting, utility counterparties, and grid constraints.
- Favour markets with strong, independent regulators. PREB’s assertiveness is actually a positive signal: rules are enforced, not arbitrary.
- Back platforms, not one‑offs. Developers that can replicate a template—commercially and technically—across multiple sites will out‑execute fragmented players.
Where Puerto Rico fits in the bigger green technology story
Puerto Rico’s accelerated BESS programme is part of a much larger trend: storage moving from niche to necessary as grids adopt more wind and solar. From Australia’s grid‑forming batteries to 4‑hour systems in US markets, the pattern is similar—storage stabilises the transition.
The twist in Puerto Rico is how visible the governance piece has become. The island shows that green technology isn’t just hardware plus capital; it’s also regulation plus coordination. When any one of those four lags, projects stall.
If your business sits anywhere in that ecosystem—utility, developer, tech provider, investor—use ASAP as a prompt to ask three hard questions:
- Are your contracts, processes, and tools as streamlined as your technology?
- Do your regulators and partners have clear, realistic expectations about risk and cost?
- Are you using the full stack of digital and AI tools to speed up everything between concept and commissioning?
Because the real lesson from Puerto Rico isn’t just that the island needs batteries. It’s that every grid in transition needs storage, smart policy, and intelligent systems working together—or it will keep learning the hard way.
For organisations ready to treat storage and AI as strategic infrastructure rather than side projects, the opportunity is wide open. The only wrong move now is staying stuck in planning while others start building.