WAPA Experiencing Problems in the Harley Power Plant

At 3:15 a.m. Thursday, the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority experienced a fault on gas turbine Unit #18 which resulted in a total shutdown of the Randolph E. Harley Power Plant and outages which affected St. Thomas and St John. By 5 a.m., plant personnel were able to bring Units #12 and #15 on line and restored service to Feeders #6, #7, #8 and #9. By 8 a.m. all St. Thomas feeders were restored, but Feeders #7E and #9E which service St. John were still out. Service was restored to both feeders by 11:30 a.m.

As of 1 p.m. plant personnel were still working to bring other units on line at the power plant and were forced to take the following feeders out of service until approximately 2 p.m. : A section of Feeder #6 (including Crown Mountain, Crown and Hawk, Lindbergh Bay, Contant, Upper Caret Bay, UVI to Bordeaux/Fortuna): section of Feeder #7B (top of Raphune Hill to Fort Mylner); Feeder #8A (including Anna’s Fancy, part of Contant, the Lockhart School area, part of Nisky Center), and a section of Feeder #8B (including Magens Bay, a section of Wintberg, Skyline Drive).

If necessary, other feeders will be rotated this afternoon until WAPA can restore service to all of the necessary generating units in the Randolph E. Harley Power Plant. WAPA expresses appreciation to the larger hotels in the St. Thomas/St. John district which have cooperated by going offline and are presently generating their own power until WAPA can meet all customer load requirements.

Additionally, WAPA has been experiencing problems with the 774-1424 emergency number to the St. Thomas Line department. Customers can contact WAPA by calling 774-3552 and pressing 0 or 4 to reach the Line department. WAPA apologizes for the inconvenience of the service interruptions to its power system and emergency telephone lines and thanks its customers for their patience and understanding while plant and line personnel work to restore service to all areas.