CHARLOTTE AMALIE — Power failures continued this week in the St. Thomas-St. John district for a third day in a row Thursday, as the Virgin Islands Water & Power Authority implemented rolling blackouts to conduct repairs on one of the main generators, Unit 23.
WAPA said in a statement Wednesday night that, “Due to financial challenges, there is low diesel fuel inventory. Unit 23 is experiencing fluctuations in fuel pressures affecting the overall performance of the unit resulting in leaks on the fuel system.”
In addition, “Unit 15 is scheduled to be taken offline (Friday) to replace the gas valve allowing the unit to return back to propane operation. WAPA is expecting a diesel shipment on Sunday as weather permits.”
WAPA published a schedule of feeders that would be under rolling blackouts Thursday, but the outage times were not accurate. The situation worsened at around 7:35 p.m. Thursday night when transmission line Feeder 13 failed, leaving around 9,400 customers without power.
WAPA spokeswoman Shanell Petersen and Government House Communications Director Richard Motta Jr. did not respond to questions from The Daily News could not immediately be reached about the notice, and it’s unclear if the power failures will continue until the fuel shipment arrives.
The failures come amid hot July temperatures, and residents who cannot afford generators or solar backup systems have been forced to spend hours without electricity, leaving elderly and disabled residents without the ability to keep medicine cold or power medical devices.
Governor Albert Bryan is currently on a cruise and will be out of the territory until Sunday. Government House said earlier that Bryan had accepted an invitation from Royal Caribbean for its inaugural sail of its newest mega ship, Utopia of the Seas, which left Port Canaveral, Fla. on Monday.
Bryan, in the Government House statement announcing the cruise, said it was an “excellent opportunity to showcase the U.S. Virgin Islands as a premier destination” and that he planned meetings with regional and cruise leaders that his office would “provide updates on the outcomes of these meetings and any new initiatives resulting from this trip.”
Government House has not responded to questions about who else is on the cruise, and if it’s being considered a vacation or if government employees are being paid for their time on the ship.
Meanwhile, Virgin Islands Delegate to Congress Stacey Plaskett and U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm toured the Randolph Harley Power Plant on St. Thomas Tuesday, shortly before the first prolonged power failure this week.
Posts to the Facebook group “STX Utility Outage Reporting” on St. Croix this afternoon.
The territory has been under a state of emergency since April, when St. Croix suffered major power failures because WAPA had failed to pay Aggreko for leased generators at the Richmond Power Plant.
Bryan funneled over $100 million in federal funding to WAPA in 2022 and 2023, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced another $100 million in funding Tuesday to finalize a $145 million infrastructure buyout with propane supplier Vitol.
The local government has frequently fallen behind on payments to WAPA, and Motta has not responded to questions about the government’s current outstanding utility bills.
By SUZANNE CARLSON/V.I. Daily News