💧 Water and Power · U.S. Virgin Islands
WAPA said equipment failures caused rotational outages in St. Thomas-St. John district
Official document: https://www.viwapa.vi/docs/default-source/news-(docs)/wapa-issues-statement-regarding-rotational-outages-in-the-st-thomas---st-john-district.pdf?sfvrsn=a3da1844_2
The Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority said on June 25, 2022, that rotational outages in the St. Thomas-St. John district followed the loss of Generating Unit 23 at the Randolph Harley Power Plant on June 24.
WAPA said the outage began after the air conditioner in Unit 23’s control room stopped working, causing control equipment to overheat and shut down automatically. After the equipment cooled overnight with large fans and replacement air conditioning, the authority said a valve supplying hydraulic pressure to the unit’s starting system failed during an attempted restart on the evening of June 24. WAPA said installation of a replacement valve was underway.
The authority said Unit 23 provided a significant share of generation capacity for the district. With the unit offline, WAPA said available generation from the Randolph Harley plant and Unit 15 was not enough to meet demand, leading to load shedding.
WAPA said Unit 27, which it described as its next most efficient unit, had been unavailable since June 23 while the authority finalized a purchase agreement with GE. WAPA said it reached an agreement with GE to return Unit 27 to service immediately, and that the unit returned to service on June 25.