💧 Water and Power · St. Thomas, VI
WAPA board approved lease of 26-megawatt generator for Harley plant
The Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority’s governing board approved the lease of a 26-megawatt generator for the Randolph Harley Power Plant on St. Thomas during an emergency meeting on April 27, 2020, and also extended several credit lines with Banco Popular.
WAPA said it would lease Unit 27, which was already at the Harley plant, from General Electric. The unit had previously been leased from APR Energy.
According to WAPA officials, the board approved a two-year lease under which the unit would initially operate on diesel fuel and later be modified to burn liquefied petroleum gas, or propane. WAPA said the conversion would help the Harley plant operate on 100% propane.
Under the lease terms, WAPA said it would pay a monthly rental rate of $623,684 and $205.26 per fired hour while the unit operated on diesel. Once converted to LPG, the monthly rental rate would rise to $650,000 and the per fired hour rate would fall to $173.68.
WAPA also said it planned to issue a separate request for proposals for 15 megawatts of temporary leased generation to bridge capacity needs until new WAPA-owned generators funded by federal grants were commissioned.
The board also voted to extend the maturity date of existing credit lines and a standby credit facility with Banco Popular until July 30, 2020. WAPA said the extension would allow the authority to complete its fiscal year 2018 audit, after which the bank would determine whether to grant a longer extension.
Board members listed as attending were Chairman Anthony D. Thomas, Vice Chairman Noel Loftus, Secretary Juanita Young, and directors Joel Lee, Kyle Fleming, Cheryl Boynes Jackson and Jed JohnHope. Elizabeth Armstrong and Hubert Turnbull were listed as excused.