The Lineman Got $63 an Hour. The Utility Was Billed $319 an Hour.
- 7 years ago
The Lineman Got $63 an Hour. The Utility Was Billed $319 an Hour.
But the Montana company that hired the workers, Whitefish Energy Holdings, had a contract
that allowed it to bill the Puerto Rican public power company, known as Prepa, $319 an hour for linemen, a rate that industry experts said was far above the norm even for emergency work — and almost 17 times the average salary of their counterparts in Puerto Rico.
To explain the differences in salaries paid to the workers
and the rates Prepa was charged, Mr. Chiames, said in an email,“The rates in the contract were fairly negotiated between Prepa and the company and were based on the mutual knowledge about the difficulty of the work and associated risks.”
He said the company was making a “single digit” profit on the Florida workers because costs in Puerto Rico were higher.
“Linemen cost $60, $70, maybe $100 an hour,” said Luis A. Aviles, a former chairman at the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority under the previous administration,
and an energy law professor at the University of Puerto Rico.
SAN JUAN — The small energy outfit from Montana that won a $300 million contract to help rebuild Puerto Rico’s tattered power grid
had few employees of its own, so it did what the Puerto Rican authorities could have done: It turned to Florida for workers.
But the Montana company that hired the workers, Whitefish Energy Holdings, had a contract
that allowed it to bill the Puerto Rican public power company, known as Prepa, $319 an hour for linemen, a rate that industry experts said was far above the norm even for emergency work — and almost 17 times the average salary of their counterparts in Puerto Rico.
To explain the differences in salaries paid to the workers
and the rates Prepa was charged, Mr. Chiames, said in an email,“The rates in the contract were fairly negotiated between Prepa and the company and were based on the mutual knowledge about the difficulty of the work and associated risks.”
He said the company was making a “single digit” profit on the Florida workers because costs in Puerto Rico were higher.
“Linemen cost $60, $70, maybe $100 an hour,” said Luis A. Aviles, a former chairman at the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority under the previous administration,
and an energy law professor at the University of Puerto Rico.
SAN JUAN — The small energy outfit from Montana that won a $300 million contract to help rebuild Puerto Rico’s tattered power grid
had few employees of its own, so it did what the Puerto Rican authorities could have done: It turned to Florida for workers.