💧 Water and Power · U.S. Virgin Islands
WAPA said it began short-term fixes for St. Thomas power plant reliability problems
The Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority said on September 20, 2019, that it had begun implementing the first of several short-term measures aimed at recurring electrical service interruptions across the territory, primarily in the St. Thomas-St. John district.
WAPA said its engineers, technical staff from APR Energy and engineers from the New York Power Authority had analyzed system data and identified problems with the fuel system for generating units 26 and 27 as one of the root causes of the interruptions. The authority said earlier fuel-system modifications had not fully resolved the issue.
According to the release, fuel regulating valves on both units were replaced and other adjustments were made to fuel-system operating parameters. WAPA said additional fuel-system changes were expected over the following two weeks.
The authority also said the agencies programmed existing devices throughout the system to capture high-resolution data during future unplanned outages as part of the root-cause analysis.
WAPA said it also planned to review transmission and distribution relay settings that determine how electrical load is shed from the grid when generation is lost, with the goal of improving generator response during periods of instability.
The release also said a federally funded project to add four generating units and battery storage at the Harley power plant had been put out to bid, with the equipment expected to be online by the end of 2020.