C. P. Smith
Unidos por Utuado
Founder and Executive Director
C. P. Smith is the Founder and Executive Director of Unidos por Utuado. Unidos por Utuado is a registered 501(c)(3) charity dedicated to supporting the residents in the municipality of Utuado. Unidos por Utuado started operations on the 4th day after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico. Initial aid consisted of the basics of water, food and clothing with a focus on supporting the refuge centers in Utuado. As the need of the residents changed so did the service provision, including the distribution of over 1000 water filters and, more recently, hundreds of mini-solar panels and lighting systems for families with members who required medical care throughout the night be it a newborn or late-stage hospice care. As several barrios remained without electricity for more than 11 months it became apparent to the Board of Directors of Unidos por Utuado that every resident of Utuado could receive a water filter and mini-solar panel and the problems would remain because the root of the problem stemmed from political, social and structural failures. This realization became the seed for Unidos por Utuado’s current principal project: La Cooperativa Hidroeléctrica de La Montaña.
La Cooperativa Hidroeléctrica de La Montaña will be Puerto Rico’s first electric cooperative and will serve as a social engagement tool to improve energy resiliency and security of residents of the municipalities of Adjuntas, Jayuya and Utuado. Uniting the residents of three municipalities provides the user base on which to build two parallel energy security initiatives: the rehabilitation of 43MW of WWII-era hydroelectric generative capacity that is currently only generating occasionally 6MW; and the development, organizing, financing, installation and maintenance of commercial and residential solar systems for the member-owners of the cooperative. Unidos por Utuado applied to the Puerto Rico Big Ideas Challenge, sponsored by the Fundación Banco Popular and the Hispanic Federation, and was awarded $100K for the Cooperativa Hidroeléctrica de La Montaña initiative after the committee identified that the project had the greatest potential for impact in Puerto Rico over all other submissions.
C.P. also worked at SunPower – a PV manufacturer, installer and maintainer – for a few years in EPC and O&M.