CHARLOTTE AMALIE — The Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (WAPA) is advising residents of St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix to brace themselves for more power outages starting tomorrow.
The rotation schedule for the St Thomas/St John district tentatively began on Friday, April 12 through Sunday, April 14 “depending on marine weather conditions,” according to WAPA.
Originally, WAPA said Friday that all of the USVI would begin “rotational power outages” on Saturday April 13. On Saturday, the government-run utility said it would push back the outages for St. Croix until Monday April 15.
WAPA says these outages are necessary to prevent widespread outages and ensure continuous service to the most vulnerable communities.
On the St Thomas/St John district, inclement weather and low fuel inventory pose a threat of a district-wide outage. Rotational outages will be implemented starting late Friday or early Saturday and will continue through Sunday. These outages are crucial to maintaining electrical service in the most vulnerable areas.
Though the Richmond Power Plant is anticipated to lose power generation at 12:00 a.m. Tuesday, the St. Croix Rotational Outage Schedule is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m., Tuesday, April 16, 2024.
Residents and businesses have been asked to conserve energy as much as possible to support the stability of the electrical grid and keep more feeders operational.
Ashley Bryan, Chief Operation Officer at the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority said: “We understand the inconvenience these outages may cause, but they are essential to prevent larger disruptions across the district and ensure more feeders are with electrical service throughout the weekend.” “We’re working to find a balance between minimising brief outages that affect a smaller number of customers and the potential for a larger-scale outage across the district. We appreciate the cooperation and understanding of our customers during this time.”
The scheduled rotation outage for the St Croix district is pending.
WAPA tells its STT-STJ electrical customers to ‘sit and spin’ to generate static electricity to feed back to the grid
The scheduled rotation outage is as follows for the St Thomas/St John district, tentatively beginning late Friday or early Saturday morning through late Sunday, April 14, 2024, depending on marine weather conditions:
Rotation (12am-2am):
Outage: 7E, 7A, and 8A
Rotation (2am-4am):
Outage: 6B, 7B, and 8B
Rotation (4am-6am):
Outage: 7C and 9C
Rotation (6am-8am):
Outage: 6A, 9E, 10B, Mall, YH2, and 8E
Rotation (8am-10am):
Outage: 7E, 7A, and 8A
Rotation (10am-12pm):
Outage: 6B, Masa Switch, and 8B
Rotation (12pm-2pm):
Outage: Cassi Hill Switch and Nadir Switch
Rotation (2pm-4pm):
Outage: 6A, 9E, Mall, YH2, 8E, and WICO or Port of Sale Switch
Rotation (4pm-6pm):
Outage: 7E, 7A, and 8A
Rotation (6pm-8pm):
Outage: 6B, 7B, and 8B
Rotation (8pm-10pm):
Outage: 7C and 9C
Rotation (10pm-12am):
Outage: 6A, 9E, 10B, Mall, YH2, and 8E