The Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority
Corporate Communications
NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Jean P. Greaux, Jr., Director of Corporate Communications
340-774-3552 extension 2147 or 340-244-7330
NYPA POWER GENERATION SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS MEET WITH WAPA LEADERSHIP AHEAD OF DEVELOPING SOLUTION TO RECURRING SERVICE INTERRUPTIONS IN BOTH DISTRICTS
On Wednesday evening, WAPA leadership met with representatives from the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to brief the technical experts on outages that have occurred on both St. Thomas and St. Croix in recent weeks.
“Working alongside WAPA operations personnel, the NYPA team will gather relevant technical and historical information in an effort to determine the root cause of the power disruptions and come up with both short and long-term plans to address the identified issues,” said Executive Director Lawrence J. Kupfer.
Kupfer said an update is expected on an immediate corrective action plan and implementation process within the next few days. “I assure our customers that everyone at WAPA understands the frustrations that the repeated outages have caused. For all of us at WAPA, having one customer without electrical service, is one customer too many. The men and women of the Authority are working each day to resolve these challenges and return WAPA to providing reliable electric service to our customers. We now have subject matter experts from NYPA available to us to remedy these challenges. We will keep the public updated on the progress we are making,” he said.
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The Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority is an autonomous agency of the Virgin Islands Government which produces and distributes electricity and drinking water to residential and commercial customers in the territory. WAPA was created by the Fifth Legislature of the Virgin Islands in 1964 through Act No. 1248. Today, WAPA generates electrical power at production plants on St. Thomas and St. Croix, and distributes electrical service through smart grids to customers on St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. John, Hassel Island, and Water Island. Potable water is distributed to almost 13,000 customers through water lines and standpipes. WAPA also has the responsibility of installing and maintaining street lights.