Fault May Have Contributed to Island Wide Outage Saturday Morning

Electric System personnel on Saturday addressed an electrical fault that is believed to be the root cause of a series of recent service interruptions on St. Croix Feeder 9B. A similar fault, near the Central High School campus, is also the suspected cause of an island-wide service interruption on St. Croix earlier this morning. On at least three occasions this week, the feeder experienced electrical faults resulting in outages and may have contributed to another island-wide outage a week ago, on September 18.

Interim Executive Director / CEO Noel Hodge said on Saturday morning the electrical fault came back into the Estate Richmond Power Plant tripping all dispatched generators at approximately 9:05 a.m. Plant personnel quickly restarted the tripped units and commenced restoration of service to customers within 15 minutes. All feeders except for 9B were restored.

“Crews then began a meticulous inspection of the feeder path to determine the location of the electrical fault. Near Central High School, crews found overgrown vegetation and tree branches impacting primary service lines.” Hodge said with the assistance of the fire department, the tree branches were cut back, the lines were cleared, and service was restored to all customers at 11:45 a.m. “We believe we have addressed the cause of these recent outages and offer our apologies to our customers who have experienced service outages over the last few days.”

Feeder 9B provides electrical service to customers in Adventure, Aureo Diaz Heights, Castle Burke, Clifton Hill, Croixville, Diamond West, Golden Grove, UVI, New Works, Paradise, Profit and St. George. A complete feeder listing is available on the WAPA website, www.viwapa.vi.

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