6 month after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico there are still parts of Puerto Rico without power. The grid was old, not maintained and failed miserably. The half hearted and late response was in the beginning a disaster. There is plenty of blame to go around. They are now headed into hurricane season again.
On March 20, 2018 PREPA (Puerto Rico’s power company) hired Walter Higgins as their new CEO. Walter has a stellar record in the power industry. He was head of Nevada Power for years and transformed that entity to a smooth running and efficient entity. When he retired he was tapped by the island nation of Bermuda to rebuild their failing power system. He was in Bermuda for 5 plus years. His original contract was 3 but he felt he had not completed the job. They were glad to keep him on as he was truly transforming not only the energy source but the mindset of those who would take over when he was gone.
Now the Puerto Rican electric company known as PREPA has hired him as CEO. My husband and I have known Walter for 20 years. My hubby is a marine diesel mechanic and has worked on Walter’s boat in Seattle for many years. We have dined with him on many occasions and he and his wife are wonderful people. Tim had the opportunity to be a guest speaker to Walt’s group of boaters and we were guest’s of Walt and his lovely wife in Vancouver BC for several days. One of the other guest was a retired admiral (embarrassed I don’t recall his name). He had a new iPhone and had no clue how to use it. I became his iPhone expert and by the end of the trip had him in love with Siri.
Walt is an honest , no nonsense, get the job done, do it right the first time kind of guy. He is not afraid of the politics.
May I introduce to you Walter Higgins testifying before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee:
www.c-span.org/…
Walter has different political views, I still consider him an honorable and trustworthy man. I am confident he will lead Puerto Rico into a new age of power resources.