Both the Estate Richmond Power Plant on St. Croix and the Randolph Harley Power Plant on St. Thomas experienced tripped generating units on Monday, triggering electric service interruptions in both island districts, the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority has announced.
Eight electrical feeders on St. Croix fell off line around 10:45 a.m. affecting more than 15,000 customers when Unit 17 tripped. Plant personnel brought Unit 20 on line and once the power plant was stabilized, service was restored to all customers. All feeders were back on line by 12:11 p.m., WAPA said.
Later in the afternoon on St. Thomas, at about 2:34 pm, Unit 18 tripped causing nine feeders to fall off line affecting service to just over 16,000 customers. Two feeders were restored initially and once Unit 25 wrapped up its scheduled maintenance and was added to the dispatch, all feeders were returned to service. Full power restoration was experienced at 4:29 p.m. Presently, Units 15, 25 and 26 are powering the St. Thomas St. John district, according to WAPA.
The semiautonomous entity said Unit 23 is preparing to undergo maintenance overhaul and conversion to LPG; Unit 14 is sidelined awaiting a replacement part and Unit 18 will remain offline until personnel identify the factors which contributed to the unit tripping Monday afternoon. On St. Croix, plant personnel will troubleshoot the cause of Unit 17 falling off line Tuesday morning.
Tags: virgin islands water and power authority, wapa
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