Today was supposed to be a normal day in Puerto Rico (whatever that might look like). I was supposed to record a voiceover for my upcoming video and start editing it. Then, after 2–3 days of work, I would write a 2,500 to 3.500-word post for the same location. After that the cycle would start all over again.
But normal in Puerto Rico is anything but normal, especially when it has to do with delicate electronics. So I decided to write this post instead, assisted by generator power and my own voltage regulators, while the local power utility takes its sweet time restoring the power grid.
Oh, and today is actually the second day in a row. Yesterday we went from 8:00am to 8:00pm without power as well.
Puerto Rico is divided into 78 towns or municipalities. Each one has its own traditions and peculiarities that make it unique. Together they form a cultural amalgam that we like to call Puerto Rico. But there’s one thing that’s common to all 78. The power sucks!!!
Starting 2023 my wife and I decided to visit one municipality every two weeks. The goal was to produce a detailed blog post and a video that I would post both on YouTube and on Puerto Rico By GPS. That isn’t to say that I post my YouTube videos on my blog. That would be a terrible mistake! Instead, I post a copy of the video on YouTube and a second copy on a private server that I then post on my blog.
There are several reasons for that but let’s just say that the main one is traffic.
Before 2023 my wife and I were mainly focused on the U.S. National Parks. I had been publishing Puerto Rico By GPS since 2013, but it was more of a hobby than a serious venture. Our goal at that time was to visit every U.S. National Park in the lower 48 states. Then Covid-19 hit and we were cut short at 22.
- At Shenandoah National Park
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- At Monument Valley Navajo Park
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- At Grand Teton National Park
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- At Grand Canyon National Park
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- At Bryce Canyon National Park
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- At Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
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Travel bloggers have special needs. We travel with delicate electronics that allow one person to do what previously took an entire crew. A typical kit can include a laptop computer, hard drives, SSDs, one or more cameras, microphones, light modifiers, lights, lenses, tripods, sliders, gimbals, drones and —of course— lots and lots of batteries.
If there’s one thing that we can’t live without it’s reliable power. We can either consume it at our Airbnb or hotel room, or we can produce it ourselves with renewable systems. The later is a lot more convoluted but there’s no other way when you go to remote locations like jungles, deserts or polar regions.
Well, Puerto Rico is becoming more and more like a remote region or a third world country.
In Puerto Rico politics take precedence over everything else. You have two main parties that have governed the Island since the first half of the 20th century and a bunch of smaller parties that hardly garner any power.
One of the main parties moved the Island out of poverty and turned it into a pharmaceutical powerhouse in a little over 30 years. The other has spent the last 50 years privatizing every aspect of life on the Island and dismantling everything the previous party did.
There was a time when Puerto Rico had its own transport company, its own phone company, its own airport, its own roads, its own hospital network, its own university system and its own power company. Today each and every one of them is either privatized or on its way.

Noam Chomsky
In every case they’ve followed the same three-step formula, laid out by Noam Chomsky years ago. First you defund the entity to make sure that key systems break down and that it doesn’t work. Then the people get angry. And finally you propose “privatization” as the magic bullet that will “solve” everything.
Well, if there’s something history has shown us is that Abraham Lincoln was wrong. Honest Abe used to say that “you can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time”. Well, Abe was wrong. These people have been doing it for close to half a century in Puerto Rico.
The latest example has been the Puerto Rico Power Authority (PREPA). This was once one of the most envied public corporations in Puerto Rico. Today it has been divided into two separate entities (neither of which can get its act together) and the people can’t get a straight answer about anything.
On the other hand you hear the Island’s governor Pedro Pierluisi arguing about how everything is improving and that his government is “making things happen, while the people spend entire days without power, their appliances keep breaking down and no one assumes responsibility for anything.
I’m going to tell you exactly why the electric power is so bad for your delicate electronic equipment in Puerto Rico, but first let me address the question that gave way to this article. The simple answer is NO!!! You should not visit Puerto Rico with delicate electronics.
And who am I to make such a blanket statement. Well, for one I’m not an electrical engineer. However, I do hold a master’s degree in communications, an undergraduate course in electronics and have been around electronic equipment since I was a teenager back in the 60’s. So I do understand a little bit about these things.
But don’t believe me, according to a recent study conducted by J.D. Power and Associates, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority recently took last place among 144 U.S. utilities based on six criteria that include: power quality and reliability, price, customer care and communications.
The data, obtained through independent third party sources, placed PREPA’s overall customer satisfaction at the very bottom of all North American electric utilities, and with a large gap between PREPA and the next lowest-ranking utility. All this according to a recent article published in NimB.com.
THE INNER WORKINGS OF ELECTRIC POWER
So how does the electric power that comes out of your outlet work anyway? Well, without going into specific voltages and wattages, let’s just say that the power authority produces something called electricity. Amazing, I know. That electricity comes out of a generating facility over wires, goes through a series of transformers and arrives at your home or office.
Simple enough, right? Well, let’s complicate it a bit.
That electricity is of the AC variety. The letters AC mean alternating current and the one in your electric outlet is normally represented by a 60Hz sine wave like the one to the right. That sine wave has three components: voltage, frequency and phase. Voltage is represented by height of the peaks and valleys. Frequency is represented by the amount of peaks and valleys within a given measure of time (in this case seconds) and phase has to do with the peaks and valleys independently.
When your peaks and valleys vary so does your voltage. When your voltage is too high its called a power surge, which can lead to equipment overheating and cause damage to delicate circuits. Conversely, when your voltage is too low it’s called a brownout and the effects are pretty much the same.
In the case of equipment that uses electrical motors the effects of brownouts can be devastating. But it gets worse.

AC Ripple
Every time there’s a power outage you get something called “ripple”. Ripple heat components, causes noise and distortion, and may cause digital circuits to operate improperly. Plus, systems that use batteries hate it. That’s why your UPS (uninterruptible power system, not the guy in the brown shorts) boxes keep breaking down in Puerto Rico.
So, how does “ripple” actually happen? Well, remember those transformers that I mentioned a while ago that operate between the power company and your home or office? Those come in two varieties: “step up” and “step down”. Without going into the physics of it, a step up transformer takes a AC voltage and augments it, while a step down transformer does the opposite. It takes an AC voltage and reduces it.
That’s how power companies are able to move electrical potentials across vast expanses and then bring it down to your common 110 AC at you home or office.
The problem is that every time there’s a power outage you get ripple at the end of the circuit (that’s you and your computer). And just so you know, whoever tells you that a power outage is the same as throwing a switch is simply taking you for a ride!!!

Surge Protector
So let’s see: we have power surges, brownouts, ripple and power outages. What can a guy do? Well, some people like to believe that a surge protector (like the ones you find at Home Depot) is going to help in any way. The fact is that it probably won’t. Maybe it will iron out a power surge but that’s about it. It won’t protect you against brownouts, ripples or power outages.
The next step up is a voltage regulator or line conditioner. Like its name suggests a voltage regulator will take care of surges, brownouts and ripples. A good one, that is. Most of them are also heavy, bulky and expensive.
A line conditioner goes a step further because it also removes radio interference, static noise and ground fault conditions. Most are expensive, heavy and designed to be rack mounted. They’re definitely not the kind of thing that you throw in your carry-on with you computer and swimming shorts. Neither are the regulators.
Then you have UPS (uninterruptible power supply) boxes. These come in many varieties and their prices vary accordingly. First are the “online” UPS systems. These are systems that are always working. The voltage goes in one end, it’s conditioned and regulated and it comes out the other end towards your equipment. There’s no switching involved. Your equipment is always working from the UPS, not the wall outlet.
Then you have the “offline” UPS system. Those are the ones that you find at big box stores like Costco, Sam’s and BestBuy. They also have a battery inside but they “switch over” whenever there’s a severe power condition.
So why doesn’t your equipment turn off when the power company shuts down? Because the entire operation takes place in a matter of microseconds and your equipment isn’t “fast enough” to detect the change.
Theoretically, both systems should be pretty much the same when it comes to protecting your equipment. And in some cases they are. The problem is that the units sold at big box stores are generally cheap and poorly built, so in some cases their level of protection is questionable and they also break down frequently.
I’ve been working at home since 1990 and at any given time have 4 or 5 of those “big box” UPS units around the house. I also have three high quality voltage regulators. The equipment in my office is connected to two UPS units, which in turn are connected into a large voltage regulator.
The same thing happens with my living room equipment and the equipment in my bed room. And still the power company manages to blow one or two of my UPS units every year.
They also damaged one of my mini split air conditioners, my refrigerator and one of my GPS units. Just in the last month.
So here’s the bottom line. If you value in any way your delicate electronic equipment don’t lug it over to Puerto Rico. Leave it home. Instead bring battery operated equipment. That way, in the worst case scenario, they’ll mess up a couple of your batteries.
As a society, Puerto Ricans have normalized irresponsibility and mediocrity. We’ve normalized crime, bad roads, bad hospitals, bad schools, bad tv, bad parks, bad… well, you get the picture. We’re nothing but a perfumed colony of the United States that slowly, but steadily, has been losing its charm.
- Electrical mess from image bank
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- Electrical Mess in my back yard
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- Power lines behind my neighbor’s yard
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On a funny note, when I was getting ready to publish this post I went looking for photos and illustrations at one of the image banks that I normally use. The image on the left is from the image bank and the two on the right are from the power lines that go by my back yard.
I rest my case.
©2023,Orlando Mergal, MA
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Bilingual Content Creator, Blogger, Podcaster,
Author, Photographer and New Media Expert
Tel. 787–750-0000, Mobile 787–306-1590