CHARLOTTE AMALIE — Frustration and outrage is growing across the territory yet again, as Wednesday’s unscheduled rolling blackouts left thousands of Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority customers suffering through another hot, humid day without reliable electricity.
In response to questions from a reporter, WAPA spokeswoman Shanell Petersen said that the utility hasn’t identified the cause of the blackouts, and doesn’t know when the failures might be resolved.
Lightning struck the Randolph Harley power plant on St. Thomas on May 8, causing a districtwide outage, and several more outages have followed in the two weeks since. Petersen said Wednesday that plant staff are investigating whether there is still damage from the lightning that is causing the ongoing blackouts.
“They haven’t been able to identify the exact cause of the outage, so that’s really what they’re focusing on, so that the appropriate repairs can be conducted so that we don’t continue to see this happen on such a regular basis,” Petersen said.
Wednesday’s outages began when the plant’s largest, oldest generator, Unit 23, tripped for reasons that are still unknown, Petersen said.
Several recent outages have been blamed on systems designed to protect the plant from damage, but the underlying causes for the outages have not been determined.
“There was a gas turbine trip that occurred, and this is another protection scheme, so it activates to protect the system and the generation,” Petersen said.
The system monitors “specific areas of performance” and detects abnormalities outside of thresholds for the overspeed frequency, exciter, or differential. If a change is detected, “it initiates a trip to protect the unit from damage, so that’s what happened earlier with Unit 23,” Petersen said.
“They are still investigating what could have caused the exact trip,” Petersen said. “They don’t know, as of yet.”
Another trip occurred on Unit 23 Wednesday afternoon, which is also under investigation, Petersen said.
Just before noon, WAPA released a temporary rotation schedule, “but within an hour of releasing that schedule, we were able to restore power to all feeders. Unfortunately, within two hours of that time period is when Unit 23 tripped again, causing the islandwide outage,” Petersen said.
Peak district demand is around 57 megawatts, and for years, WAPA has been working to purchase newer, smaller, more efficient generating units to help minimize major blackouts when one of the larger generators trip.
Unit 23 is a 39-megawatt GE generator owned by WAPA that first came into service in 2004, and has been a frequent cause of outages because of a lack of maintenance over the last 20 years.
The 20-megawatt Unit 15 is currently in service, as well as two smaller Wartsila units that generate seven megawatts each. A third Wartsila is currently offline for repairs, Petersen said Wednesday.
Four new seven-megawatt generators have been on island since 2021, but installation has been repeatedly delayed, and is currently on hold because of an ongoing payment dispute between WAPA and Wartsila. Once negotiations are complete, Petersen said it’s expected to take another six weeks to get the new Wartsilas running “based on the work that’s remaining.”
Residents have been fed up with WAPA’s high rates and unreliable service for decades, and WAPA customers have repeatedly taken to the streets in protest, and multiple class action lawsuits are pending. Despite those efforts, residents are still stuck trying to live and work without knowing when they might have access to electricity.
Wednesday’s blackouts hit the St. Thomas-St. John district starting at 7 a.m., and feeders randomly went dark for hours throughout the day and into the night, with some areas suffering five or more separate outages.
Traffic lights at major intersections went out, and businesses were forced to close or rely on partial generator power. WAPA customers who cannot afford their own generators or solar backup systems struggled to perform routine tasks like showering and cooking, with food spoilage and damage to electrical devices compounding the misery.
Posted by WAPA to Facebook about 8:50 a.m. today
The blackouts caused even more stress for those with medical conditions who require refrigerated medication or electricity-powered devices to survive.
Thousands of WAPA customers on St. Croix also suffered blackouts Wednesday evening as feeders 6A, 9A, and 9B malfunctioned. WAPA said tree branches on the primary line caused the outage on 6A, but did not explain the cause of the remaining outages.
Government House spokesman Richard Motta did not respond Wednesday to multiple questions and requests for comment from The Daily News.
The rolling blackouts come after similar outages in the St. Croix district in April, and Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. declared a State of Emergency on April 22 because of WAPA’s inability to provide continuous power generation.
Bryan has funneled more than $100 million in taxpayer money to WAPA since 2022, including $96 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds. Despite the massive subsidies, WAPA is still failing to provide reliable electricity.
By SUZANNE CARLSON/V.I. Daily News