CHRISTIANSTED — While the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (WAPA) touts “infrastructure progress” and new composite poles, residents across St. Croix, St. Thomas, St. John, and Water Island are left in the dark with increasing frequency.
Recent data reveals a disturbing trend: what WAPA calls “pocket outages” are frequently escalating into district-wide failures. Just this month, a transmission line fault left all of St. John without power for over 24 hours, while St. Thomas schools were forced to shutter as “stormy winds” triggered a cascade of feeder failures.
The Maintenance Myth
WAPA leadership recently admitted to the 36th Legislature that a staggering $30 million in deferred maintenance is to blame for the grid’s fragility. Despite the arrival of new Wärtsilä units, the Authority remains in “no man’s land” regarding a formal maintenance agreement, leaving internal crews to “source spare parts” on the fly.
The Toll on the Territory
- St. Thomas: Faced a weekend-long ordeal in late January due to an underground cable fault in Estate Thomas that left major businesses like Banco Popular and Wendy’s powerless for days.
- St. John: Remains vulnerable with no local generation, relying entirely on a submarine cable and terrestrial lines that recently suffered “multiple points of failure”.
- St. Croix: Though boasting the Richmond Power Plant, the Big Island still battles generation outages that WAPA blames on “stressed equipment” requiring extensive repair.
As WAPA struggles with a $2-3 million monthly deficit, the question for every ratepayer remains: Is the “more difficult path” of right-sizing operations enough to keep the lights on, or is the grid simply running on borrowed time?