LADWP CEO Janisse Quiñones to step down March 27 for Puerto Rico role

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the mayor’s office announced on March 4 that Chief Executive Officer and Chief Engineer Janisse Quiñones will step down effective March 27, 2026 to take a new role in Puerto Rico. The move removes the leader of an agency that serves roughly four million residents and manages nearly 12,000 employees at a pivotal moment in the city’s shift to cleaner electricity and more resilient water systems.

The agencies provided no public detail about the Puerto Rico position, and officials had not named a successor as of this week. The short runway between the announcement and her departure creates an immediate transition task for the Board of Water and Power Commissioners and city leadership, who must ensure continuity for operations that underpin public health, emergency response and low-income rate protections.

Quiñones was confirmed by the City Council and sworn in on May 14, 2024. She joined LADWP after more than 25 years in utility and engineering leadership, including senior roles at Pacific Gas and Electric Company and executive positions at National Grid, Cobra Energy and San Diego Gas & Electric. Her resume also includes long service with the U.S. Coast Guard in active and reserve roles. Born and raised in Caguas, Puerto Rico, Quiñones holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, an MBA and a master’s in international relations, and is a licensed professional engineer in five states.

In a video and press materials from her 2024 confirmation, Quiñones said, “With this confirmation, I am honored and ready to serve as the next CEO and Chief Engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and I look forward to continue to get to know the LADWP family and supporting those that work so hard to deliver for the people of Los Angeles.” She also emphasized the utility’s crisis role and clean-energy goals, saying she looked forward “to working closely with Mayor Bass, the Board of Water and Power Commissioners and the committed employees of the department as we move towards our commitment of 100% clean energy by 2035.”

Under Quiñones’s tenure the utility moved forward on large renewable projects and reported delivering about 62 percent clean energy to customers, and it completed the landmark Eland Solar-plus-Storage Center while securing approval for additional solar developments. Agency statements also pointed to her crisis leadership during the Pacific Palisades fire response, when more than 8,000 water and power services were disrupted and restorations were completed with what officials described as record efficiency.

Mayor Karen Bass, who praised Quiñones at her 2024 confirmation, reiterated the city’s priorities in agency materials: “The Department of Water and Power has made important progress toward embracing clean energy, meeting its decarbonization goals, modernizing its infrastructure to be more resilient, getting to a reliant and resilient water future and ensuring vulnerable communities have access to affordable utilities. I thank the Board of Water and Power Commissioners and the Los Angeles City Council for their unanimous confirmation of Ms. Quiñones and look forward to working with Janisse to deliver for the people of Los Angeles.”

City leaders must now confront near-term operational questions: who will be named interim CEO, how the board plans a search, and whether the leadership change will slow project timelines tied to reliability and equity goals. The agency’s customers include many of the city’s most vulnerable communities, for whom disruptions to power or water can quickly become public health emergencies, making a transparent and rapid succession process a public safety priority.