SAN JUAN – Beginning next year, private firms will be able to sell electricity in Puerto Rico using the grid of the Electric Energy Authority, the top official at the state-owned company known as AEE announced Monday.

Miguel Cordero, AEE’s executive director, said that 40 companies already had inquired about the conditions under which they could sell electricity.

He added that four of the firms had signed contracts with AEE, but he did not give any details about the companies involved.

Cordero said that the opening of the private sector to energy sales is the result of a law from the previous administration in San Juan and that, in his opinion, the initiative will help to lower electricity prices.

The AEE chief said that practically all the companies that will sell electricity on the Caribbean island starting in January 2010 will generate it from wind and solar power.

Meanwhile, the president of the UTIER electrical workers union, Angel Figueroa Jaramillo, said that privatizing the sale of electricity through the AEE grid is technically not possible.

Figueroa also emphasized that the initiative is nothing but a first step towards privatizing AEE.

Most of the energy produced by AEE is generated at five plants at Costa Sur, Complejo Aguirre, San Juan and Cambalache, which together have a capacity of 5.864 gigawatts, 68 percent of it produced from petroleum.

Puerto Rico’s electricity system includes 2,416 miles (3,890 kilometers) of 230-kilowatt transmission lines. EFE