Over 14,000 St. Croix WAPA Customers Lose Power Following Christiansted Power Plant Breakdown (Update)

Update: At about 12:13 a.m. Thursday, WAPA said service to all affected customers on St. Croix had been fully restored.

Original Story: ST. CROIX — At 11:17 p.m. on Wednesday, the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority said its employees at the Estate Richmond power plant were continuing efforts to bring additional generation capacity on line in support of service restoration across eight feeders that WAPA says are experiencing service interruption. At 6:21 p.m. Wednesday evening, the plant lost units 11 and 20 which had a cascading effect on the feeders. More than 14,000 customers have been affected, WAPA said. The efforts will continue until full restoration has been achieved.

Portions of Christiansted, Frederiksted and mid-island are affected by the service interruption.

Affected feeders include: 2A, 3A, 4A, 6A, 6B, 9B and 10B.

Additionally, throughout the afternoon hours of Wednesday, WAPA experienced problems on a portion of St. Croix Feeder 6A resulting in service interruptions. Line crews are continuing to troubleshoot the problems associated with this feeder. The feeder serves the following areas: Betsy’s Jewel, Blue Mountain/Little Fountain, Canaan, Cane Bay/LaVallee, Club St. Croix, Colony Cove, Concordia East, a portion of Estate St. John, Gentle Winds, Estate Glynn, Golden Rock, Harborview, a portion of JFK Housing Community, Judith’s Fancy, La Grande Princesse, Mill Harbor, Mon Bijou, Morning Star, Salt River and Sugar Beach.

WAPA said all efforts are being made to restore service to all affected customers as quickly and as safely as possible.