💧 Water and Power · St. Thomas, VI
WAPA scheduled overnight testing for Unit 23 at Randolph Harley plant on St. Thomas
The Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority said on October 15, 2019, that personnel at the Randolph Harley Power Plant would conduct overnight performance testing on Unit 23 for three nights beginning at midnight on October 15.
WAPA said the testing would run from midnight to 6 a.m. on October 16, October 17 and October 18 as the utility evaluated the unit before certifying it to return to service following a major maintenance overhaul.
Unit 23 is a 39-megawatt General Electric generator that first entered service in 2004, according to the release. WAPA said the unit had originally been slated to return to service in September 2017, but the work was delayed by Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Hurricanes Irma and Maria in the Virgin Islands, which affected shipment of major components between Texas and the territory.
The authority said residents could experience brief service interruptions during the testing.
WAPA said that after the overhaul was accepted, Unit 23 was expected to be used as a standby generator. The authority also said Unit 23 was designed to burn No. 2 oil only, and that it would later evaluate whether converting the unit to burn liquefied petroleum gas as well as diesel was feasible.
The release also said WAPA had issued a request for proposals for an additional 40 megawatts of generation capacity at the Harley plant, to be funded by a federal grant tied to disaster recovery and mitigation from the 2017 hurricanes.