Even though the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) and Montana-based Whitefish Energy Holdings approached each other shortly before Hurricane Maria struck the island, the official agreement was formally signed a week ago, on October 17.

This agreement, which was initially announced to be for $3,700,000, establishes a cap of $300,000,000 for Whitefish to provide the manpower, tools, supervision, and equipment necessary to rebuild PREPA's transmission and distribution network.Nonetheless, the agreement also includes other provisions, which we have listed below:The time elapsed between an invoice from Whitefish and PREPA's processed payment should not exceed 10 days: seven days to approve the invoice and three days to process the payment. If this time period is exceeded, PREPA will be subject to a monthly surcharge of 1% for each overdue payment.The contract shall be valid for 12 months. PREPA may amend the contract to extend it for an additional 12 months. PREPA may terminate the contract via prior notification 30 days in advance, for any reason or no reason at all. However, PREPA shall have to compensate Whitefish for any reasonable expenses incurred during that time, including the transportation of personnel and equipment back to their place of origin.The contract may also be terminated by mutual agreement between the parts. This would include the transfer of every analysis or report created by Whitefish for PREPA, and the creation of a termination proposal, which could include the payment of a reasonable allowance not to exceed the maximum established by the contract.Whitefish will be obligated to allow inspections and visits conducted by both PREPA and FEMA personnel, subject to appropriate safety considerations.Subcontractor personnel may excuse themselves from their duties in case of an event out of their control, such as acts of God, industrial disturbances, acts from public enemies, wars, blockades, boycotts, riots, insurrection, epidemics, earthquakes, storms, floods, civil commotion, strikes, fire, explosions, and service interruptions due to the action or inaction of any government authority. Nonetheless, they will have to prove that such force majeure event happened.All disputes between PREPA and Whitefish regarding the contract should be resolved within 10 days with PREPA's director of Transmission and Distribution, appealable with the head of the Chain Distribution Division.The contract shall be interpreted according to the laws of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and all legal controversies shall be elucidated in local court. Nonetheless, the financing provided by FEMA as of October 25 will obligate Whitefish to be in compliance with federal regulations.The agreements assume a 16-hour daily work schedule, seven days a week. Whitefish rates shall include salaries, indirect costs, and administrative and general expenses. The payment for hour fractions shall be prorated. All of the company's own and subcontracted personnel shall be entitled to overtime payment at a rate of one-hour-and-a-half for each hour worked in excess of 40 hours per week. See the contract in the following link:[naviga:img embed-content-articleid='644006169' embed-content-groupid='593030471' embed-content-id='644006169' embed-content-imgalign='none' embed-content-index='0' embed-content-type='FILE' height='240px' src='' style='width:100%;' width='360px' /]