Puerto Rico Energy Bureau
Sylvia Ugarte Araujo serves as an Associate Commissioner for the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau.
As utility regulators gather in San Juan for the 2026 NARUC Annual Meeting and Education Conference, Public Utilities Fortnightly is putting a spotlight on Puerto Rico, which is navigating one of the most ambitious and complex grid modernization efforts in American history. Facing the dual challenges of physical isolation and structural utility transformation, the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau (PREB) operates under a unique regulatory mandate.
In the Commissioner Roundtable, PREB President Edison Avilés-Deliz alongside Associate Commissioners Antonio Torres-Miranda, Ferdinand Ramos-Soegaard, Sylvia Ugarte Araujo, and Omar Manuel Rodríguez González, explored the Bureau’s independent statutory authority, its oversight of private system operators, and the operational realities of managing a self-contained island power system.
PUF Executive Editor Rachel Bryant also spoke with each of the five Commissioners on their backgrounds, technical expertise, and policy priorities. The discussions covered a wide range of topics and offer an inside look at how PREB balances affordability, system resilience, and clean energy mandates under unprecedented operational constraints
PUF: How does PREB review capital plans to ensure federal dollars are spent efficiently without duplicating costs for ratepayers?