Electrical Service Restored To All Customers In St. Thomas-St. John District

ST. THOMAS — The Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority restored electrical service to all feeders in the St. Thomas – St. John district just after midday on Friday, following a second day of intermittent service interruptions due to limited generation capacity at the Randolph Harley power plant, WAPA announced this afternoon.

“While the power plant was stabilized and service was restored on Thursday night, we were unable to bring Unit 23 on line and faced the prospect of rotating service interruptions on Friday due to a lack of adequate generation to satisfy the peak demand for electrical service,” said Julio A. Rhymer, Sr., WAPA Executive Director.

He explained that just before 9 a.m. Friday, Unit 25 tripped off line, knocking out service to a number of feeders. After the unit was brought back online, it tripped several times while experiencing fuel-related fluctuations. Plant personnel was able to resolve the issues, and Unit 25 was returned to service allowing the restoration of several feeders. Shortly thereafter, Unit 15 began to fluctuate, again making the entire power system unstable and causing a cascading loss of several feeders. As Unit 15 stabilized, Unit 14 tripped due to ignition failures and forced the implementation of an emergency rotating service interruption schedule. By 12 noon, Unit 14 was restored and about a half an hour later, Unit 23 was brought on-line following the completion of its repairs. “This allowed both the power plant and transmission and distribution personnel to begin the process of fully restoring service to our customers,” Mr. Rhymer said.

He thanked the plant employees who worked tirelessly since Thursday afternoon to make emergency repairs to Unit 23 and to troubleshoot other problems that developed with the other generating units, which contributed to the service interruptions experienced. “I appreciate the efforts of all WAPA personnel who worked non-stop over the last 24 hours to ensure we were on a path to stabilizing the power plant. Their hard work placed WAPA in a position to restore service to all of our customers.

“And just as important, I thank our customers for their patience and understanding as we worked through a difficult period at the Authority,” Mr. Rhymer said.

He urged persons in the St. Thomas-St. John district who may be experiencing an isolated service interruption at their home or business to call WAPA at 340-774-1424.