WAPA's Richmond power plant. Photo Credit: ERNICE GILBERT, V.I. CONSORTIUM.
A districtwide power outage left St. Croix without electricity for much of Thursday after a loss of generation at the Richmond Power Plant, with the V.I. Water and Power Authority issuing a series of restoration updates throughout the day as crews worked to bring feeders back online.
The St. Croix outage came after recent weeks in which WAPA’s most visible power problems had largely affected the St. Thomas-St. John district, where prolonged outages and generation shortfalls drew repeated public scrutiny. By 5:55 p.m., WAPA said full power had been restored to all affected feeders on St. Croix.
The first public alert came at 11:29 a.m., when WAPA said there was a districtwide outage impacting all customers on St. Croix because of lost generation at the Richmond Power Plant.
“Plant Personnel are working to restore power as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience,” the authority said.
In an update issued at 11:59 a.m., WAPA said the estimated time of restoration was 1 p.m.
By 12:55 p.m., the authority reported that full power had been restored to feeders 3A, 2A, and 5A.
At 2:46 p.m., WAPA said Feeder 7A had been restored and that plant personnel were then working to restore feeders 6B and 9B.
By 3:41 p.m., the utility reported that all feeders except 6A and 6B had been restored. WAPA said it was then experiencing reduced generation capacity because one of its units had stalled and the Aggreko units were undergoing previously scheduled maintenance.
“Plant Personnel are working to bring online additional units to restore all affected customers,” the authority said.
At 5:55 p.m., WAPA announced that power had been fully restored to all affected feeders.
“Thank you for your patience,” the authority said.
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