ST. THOMAS-ST.JOHN, U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS (March 31, 2026) – The Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (“WAPA” or “the Authority”) acknowledges the continued hardship caused by ongoing rotational outages across the St. Thomas–St. John district. We understand how disruptive these outages are to homes, businesses, and essential services, and we sincerely apologize for the strain this situation continues to place on our community.
At approximately 9:25 a.m. today, Unit 15, restored to service yesterday afternoon, tripped again, resulting in the districtwide interruption experienced earlier this morning. Plant personnel immediately began assessing the unit and identified additional mechanical defects as the root cause. The unit is scheduled for replacement under the Prudent Replacement program; however, crews will continue efforts to keep it available until its replacement is in service. In addition, a technical specialist from Texas will assist with ongoing diagnostics and repairs.
Meanwhile, efforts to restore Unit 27 are progressing favorably and is the fastest path to restoring generating capacity. Replacement parts for Unit 27 are scheduled to arrive from Florida by Thursday so crews can begin accelerated repairs, while work on Unit 15 continues simultaneously.
As these parallel repairs move forward, rotational outages will continue until sufficient generation capacity is restored. Temporary outages are expected primarily during peak usage periods, beginning between approximately 9:30 a.m. and continuing through 11:30 p.m.
The current situation reflects the challenges of operating an aging electrical system. Our legacy generators are decades old and require increasingly complex repairs, a reality compounded by rising fuel, labor, and parts costs while base rates have remained unchanged for years. When fuel costs exceeded what was recovered through the Levelized Energy Adjustment Clause (LEAC), the Authority was forced to prioritize fuel, deferring certain maintenance to keep power on for the community.
WAPA employees are also members of this community. After long shifts working to restore service, our teams return home to the same outages affecting their neighbors, families and loved ones. That shared reality deepens the sense of responsibility, urgency and personal commitment our plant operators, engineers, technicians, electricians, and linemen bring to their work every day.
Federal recovery and mitigation funding is helping to modernize and rebuild critical infrastructure, but replacing decades-old systems is an extensive, collaborative process with local and federal partners. In the meantime, every available resource, including local crews, off-island specialists, and incoming equipment, is being deployed to restore stable, reliable power to our customers.
WAPA will continue providing updates as repairs progress and thanks the community for its support and resilience as we work through these necessary repairs to strengthen the territory’s power system in the shortest time possible.
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