U.S. Virgin Islands (March 23, 2026) — The Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (“WAPA” or “the Authority”) advises customers in the St. Thomas and St. John district that rotational outages began on Thursday, March 19, 2026, and are still ongoing as of today, Monday. Based on current repair timelines, the Authority expects the rotations to end on Wednesday when Unit 15 is returned to service.
On Thursday, March 19 around midday, Unit 15, which was online at the time, suffered auxiliary equipment failure taking the unit offline. Repairs started within hours as soon as it was safe to enter the unit to begin working and are still in progress.
The nature of the fault required comprehensive investigation and repair/replacement of all defective parts identified. Unit 15 is now expected to be repaired and placed back in service on Wednesday, when all relevant repair and testing activities have been concluded.
Unit 15 has already been scheduled for retirement and decommissioning and is awaiting replacement through the FEMA Public Assistance Program. While funding for these replacements has been allocated through the Office of Disaster Recovery (ODR), processing and approvals from ODR have taken longer than anticipated.
The Authority is continuing to work closely with ODR and federal partners to move these projects forward as quickly as possible. The recent failure of Unit 15 highlights the urgency of replacing aging equipment that has reached the end of its useful life and reduced the amount of power available to serve customers during peak hours of demand.
To meet demand, six of the seven Wärtsilä engines are currently operating. The seventh engine was already out of service for maintenance when Unit 15 failed and will not be ready to return to service before Wednesday.
During the day, power from the Donoe solar facility helps support the system. However, without the larger legacy units available, there are times when customer demand exceeds available generation by about 5 megawatts.
When this happens, the Authority must temporarily turn off power to certain feeders to protect the system and prevent a larger outage. To make this more predictable for customers, scheduled rotational outages are released daily.
WAPA crews from St. Croix have also been brought to St. Thomas to support ongoing repairs.
As electricity demand increases during the day, the Authority anticipates that rotational outages may begin around 9:30 a.m., and some customers may be affected. Once a rotation schedule is set, it will be shared with the public. The schedule may be adjusted as needed to accommodate community events or changing system conditions.
In addition, there was a temporary non-related outage of the WAPA Outage Map, but as of Saturday, March 21, 2026, the outage map has been restored and real-time outages can be seen at http://outageviewer.viwapa.vi:7575/.
The Authority understands the impact these outages have on residents and businesses and appreciates the community’s support as crews work to restore full power. Updates will continue to be shared as repairs progress.
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