Personnel at the Estate Richmond Power Plant on St. Croix have determined that
an electrical fault resulting from downed service lines on Feeder 2A led to a shutdown
of the plant, and for customers, an island-wide service interruption Saturday morning.
Chief Operating Officer of Electric System Clinton Hedrington, Jr. said the lines
came down inside the footprint of the power plant where Feeder 2A originates. The
downed lines caused an electrical fault, and the power plant’s protection scheme
tripped all online generators which resulted in the outage.
“The system operated as it should, it saw a major electrical fault, and the
protection system tripped the generators to prevent damage to the units. We are
continuing our assessment to determine whether scheduled grid maintenance on
Feeders 2A and 3A earlier today contributed to the lines coming down. For right now,
we made repairs and some other adjustments at both the plant and on the transmission
system, and restored service to all customers,” Hedrington said. He also reported that
there were no injuries or other damage associated with the downed lines and
subsequent outage.
The service interruption occurred at approximately 8:15a.m. restoration of
service commenced at 10:35 a.m., and full restoration was achieved by 11:15 a.m.
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