Excellent Letter to the Editor in VI Daily News

Im not talking about anyone buying wapa, I dont think any company would want that fiasco with all that baggage. I am talking about a company to produce power to compete with wapa. For example there are companies here on stx that produce their own power. Could they sell it to the public?

If there is some sort of law against it, could we vote to change the law? Wouldn't the majority of residents vote in favor of lowering our utility costs?

Problem is, I think, that they wouldn't have the infrastructure to deliver the power, even if they could produce it.

Well that is part of what energy companies do.......produce the energy and get it to the people. The infrastructure would have to be factored in.

There would have to be 2 sets of lines going out for a while lol.

But isnt wapa owned by the people sort of? Do we have any rights to say we want someone else to use the existing lines to provide us with power?

What laws are in place that prevent this?

We have utility choice where I live in Ohio. The billing is done in 2 parts: Generation and transmission/delivery. The transmission lines are maintained by the "traditional" utility and are physically used no matter who you choose as a supplier. If you select an alternate vendor they simply pay the utility for the use of their lines to deliver the power to your address.

Different vendors charge more or less for each element, and the best total cost is typically influenced by your usage pattern. We have a big house and use quite a bit of power, so we come out ahead with one of the vendors who charges less per KWh, but has a rather high flat fee for delivery. Others may do better with the utility or a different vendor who has a higher cost per KWh, but does not charge a flat delivery fee.

In our case here in the VI, there are two hurdles to overcome. The first is that utility choice must become the law, and the second is that in a practical sense WAPA needs to physically allow the connections with the vendors.

Ok that makes some sense. The first question is, If utility choice became a law, would any company find it attractive to come here and start producing power? Is there money to be made in the deal for them?

We had similar issues in L'ville with cable TV back in the 80's. We had one, non-exclusive franchisee and wanted others to bid but no one did. We were told the start up costs were just too high and the exisiting cable company would not sell the use of their lines. Of course satelite TV changed all that.

How would a competing energy company make money? For instance:

Ohio
Total population 11.5 million
Total square miles 35,000

USVI
Total population 107,000
Total square miles 133

Maybe our willingness to pay exorbitant rates per KwHr would entice a competing energy producer. "Are you tired of paying WAPA over 50 cents per KwHr? Switch to Global Ocean United Green Energy and pay just 39 cents per KwHr.” Everybody would switch to GOUGE Corp, and possibly they could actually produce energy at that price, considering that stateside rates are around 10 cents per KwHr.

Maybe our willingness to pay exorbitant rates per KwHr would entice a competing energy producer. "Are you tired of paying WAPA over 50 cents per KwHr? Switch to Global Ocean United Green Energy and pay just 39 cents per KwHr.” Everybody would switch to GOUGE Corp, and possibly they could actually produce energy at that price, considering that stateside rates are around 10 cents per KwHr.

For precisely the reason that the numbers simply don't work. We had our chance with South East and blew it. We all know that every business in the world is for sale for the right price. Likewise every market is open to entrepreneurs. If our numbers were in the slightest bit conducive to a company coming in to offer an alternative it would have been done by now.

It better behooves concerned US Virgin Islanders to closely monitor the proposals put forward to WAPA and from whom they come. We've already gone this route in the last decade with windmills and other alternative energy providers. It's been a litany of misspent "consulting" money, ill-educated senators falling for proposals for obsolete/untested systems and likewise ill educated rabble rousers decrying already tested and proven alternatives. A high school student with internet access could have overturned a bunch of some of these hare brained proposals before more money and time was wasted investigating them. But, what the heck, it's just taxpayer's money. If the taxpayers don't give a rat's patootie about all these expenditures then no point them bleating about the results ... 😀

Oldtart are you saying that if a private company wanted to come to the USVI and produce and sell energy that the market here is open to them?

Also WAPA is not a business. No company would ever buy it in its current form because it is not designed to make a profit.

For precisely the reason that the numbers simply don't work. We had our chance with South East and blew it.

No comprendo. What happened with South East?

For precisely the reason that the numbers simply don't work. We had our chance with South East and blew it.

No comprendo. What happened with South East?

That was after Marilyn when workers from all over the US came to help restore power to the islands. South East workers were amongst those involved and some time thereafter South East made a proposal to purchase WAPA. It's a very long story but if you do a google you can find it all as it was a very widely discussed topic which was covered over a long period by our media sources.

It was Southern Energy and the senators, particularly Chucky and Bert. shot it down as they didn't want any outsiders coming in to tell dem how to run ting dem.

Here's a link I found that may be interesting especially as it relates to companies unwilling to invest due to our bond ratings.:

http://www.advantekinc.com/downloads/reports/APPENDIX-E-FederalFacilitesintheUSVirginIslands.pdf

also see:

http://www.vienergy.org/AAenergy/reports/Energy%20Production%20Action%20Plan.pdf

It was Southern Energy and the senators, particularly Chucky and Bert. shot it down ...

Doh. Old brain mixed up their geographical location with their name. Here's one of the first media releases which explained the proposal:

http://southerncompany.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=1008

Certain people including the two aforementioned senators prevailed upon common ignorance and reliance on "street talk" to promote the totally untrue rumor that the new company would come in and summarily fire all the WAPA employees and replace them with their own stateside people.

As I recall there was some talk about the workers being able to own WAPA/ profit share when they were tossing Southern Energy out the door? I can't recall the whole ting as it has been many years. (that we have been ground thru the mill and headed down the tubes to Dante's Inferno of WAPA's incompetence and leadership.)

Hurican Marilyn was 17 years ago. No offense guys, basing decisions (ESPECIALLY TECHNOLOGY DECISIONS) on data collected almost two decades ago is not particularly helpful. Fear of change caused this mess in the first place. .

Hurican Marilyn was 17 years ago. No offense guys, basing decisions (ESPECIALLY TECHNOLOGY DECISIONS) on data collected almost two decades ago is not particularly helpful. Fear of change caused this mess in the first place. .

I think that same fear is causing a lot of "messes" right now too.

here's another excellent letter to DN:

http://virginislandsdailynews.com/op-ed/v-i-must-avoid-easter-island-stone-heads-effects-1.1484775