ST. THOMAS — Roughly 16,000 Water and Power Authority (WAPA) customers, who reside in St. Thomas and St. John lost power at about 7:50 p.m. on Saturday night, around the time WAPA lost generating unit 23, the authority’s ‘workhorse’ unit, according to a press release issued on Saturday night.
The failure of unit 23 tripped several feeders across the St.Thomas/St.John district, and about 30 minutes later, unit 14 tripped, sending additional feeders offline as a result, WAPA said.
Aside from attempting to restart both units 23 and 14, WAPA said personnel have been attempting to bring Unit 15 online, a unit that had recently undergone conversion to allow it to burn liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
WAPA added that its restoration efforts are further strained by unit 25’s unavailability because it’s undergoing scheduled maintenance.
The semi-autonomous entity said it’s been working around the clock to restore power to affected customers, and revealed in an updated press release that feeder 7A has been fully restored, feeder 8B partially restored — from the Randolph Harley power plant to Louisenhoj Castle, however service to Skyline and Peterborg remained interrupted.
WAPA also disclosed that feeder 7C has been partially restored from the power plant to Four Winds Plaza. However service to Anna’s Retreat and Hidden Valley remained interrupted as of press time.
Service to feeders 7D, 7E, Ridge Road and 9D are still offline, WAPA confirmed.
Tags: wapa, water and power authority
Share On Facebook
Tweet It
