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The construction of power
plants required the development of a 38,000 watt lines
network to distribute the electric power produced. When
the Toro Negro project started, construction of a line
from Villalba to Aguadilla, with branches stretching to
Arecibo, began. Others were built from Ponce to Yauco,
San Germán, Maricao and Mayagüez, and from Carite to
Cayey, Comerío and Monacillos.
The year 1937 marked the
beginning of a new era in the development of government
electric power services in Puerto Rico. It was then that
the government started to incorporate the private power
services to its system with the purchase of the Ponce
Electric Company. The latter owned a steam plant in
Ponce that served the city. It became the government's
first Thermoelectric Plant.
In 1941
Utilización
finished construction of hydroelectric plants
Garzas #1 and #2.
By this time, it had finished the construction of
Garzas Lake,
between Adjuntas and Peñuelas, and was building
Dos Bocas,
between Utuado and Arecibo.
Utilización was able to
accelerate the construction of electric power facilities
with funds obtained from the Puerto Rico Reconstruction
Administration. This agency was created in 1935 to
reduce unemployment and develop an economic rebuilding
program on the Island. Up until 1941, the Puerto Rico
Reconstruction Administration had invested $230 million
in Puerto Rico.
In 1942 the
Dos Bocas Hydroelectric
Central began to provide services from
Arecibo to Utuado.
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