But bondholders have shown little enthusiasm, and some say they believe Puerto Rico can, in fact, pay its debts.

Some also question whether any democratically elected government could use a moratorium to achieve the kind of economic reforms that Puerto Rico needs, because they are likely to resemble the tough austerity measures that the International Monetary Fund must impose unilaterally on troubled sovereign debtors.

Mr. García Padilla initially said the details of his proposed moratorium would be ready at the beginning of this week, but on Saturday his chief of staff announced a one-week delay, attributed to a tropical storm.

The new restructuring plan covers only bonds issued by Prepa, Puerto Rico’s public electric power monopoly. Its debt has a total face value of $8.1 billion, but $2.4 billion of that is insured, and the insurers are expected to negotiate separate terms for resolving that debt later.

That leaves about $5.7 billion worth of bonds, held by a variety of investors, including hedge funds, mutual funds and individuals.

The agreement calls for an exchange of debt, according to a summary posted on Prepa’s website and people briefed on the terms. Current bondholders have agreed, as one option, to accept new bonds with a par value of 15 percent less than the bonds they now hold. The new bonds are to be backed by a securitized stream of revenue that is intended to make them much safer and likelier to repay investors than Prepa’s current bonds.

With less risk, the new bonds are also intended to cost Prepa less in interest. The bonds have not yet been rated, but the securitization is supposed to make them so much stronger that they would pay an average interest rate of 4 to 4.75 percent — significantly less than the double-digit interest that Prepa would presumably have to pay if it tried to issue ordinary bonds in the current uncertainty. As Puerto Rico’s financial problems mounted over the last year, some of Prepa’s bonds changed hands for less than 50 cents on the dollar.