Wapa outage 6/15

Believe it or not, it was a single car accident on STT that took down a pole and cause a huge surge. Supposedly it is now fixed.

I heard there was a horrible accident near Antilles School that knocked down a pole with such force it damaged a feeder and caused a domino effect. It's been off and on on STT, too.

Still off on crown mountain. I saw the scene of the accident this morning and the again this afternoon. This afternoon there were no trucks or any remnant of the accident. I think the accident may have been the original problem but it is now something far more serious.

Unit 18 is out of service awaiting parts - it is a 21.8 Mega Watt generator and w/o it WAPA is hard pressed to cover normal usage - the auto accident caused other problems - rotating outages are likely for the next few days.
Power at my house was occasional :
Wed: 12:15 AM OUT all night
6:15 AM ON
1:30 PM Off
4:15 PM ON
8:00 PM Off
11:15 PM ON
I am on Feeder 6A

Mine in Mandahl (don't know feeder number) back on at 9 PM last night then off at 7:30 AM this morning. This is frustrating!

WAPA has been on Water Island the past month replacing rickety old power poles. It's a good thing heading into storm season but the power has been going off at 10:00 a.m. and coming back on mid-afternoon every day. Not really complaining - especially because WAPA is doing maintenance! Yipppeeee!

I just moved here and I get the island mentality. Really, I do, but what I don't understand is how the public lets this government get away with supplying this kind of sub standard power supply? Someone told me this grid is over 40 years old and needs updating but the government has their hands on the control and wont do anything about it. Why don't we all just start getting our asses in gear, kick out the politicians that cant perform their duties and help the people that really need it!

Lightning strike on STX knocked our power off shortly after midnight last night. Power was finally restored just before 3pm.

ROFLMAO:D

Welcome to the public. Great idea!!!!! Go for it!

Why don't we all just start getting our asses in gear, kick out the politicians that cant perform their duties and help the people that really need it!

carygirl: Welcome to the VI. This is just one of the many things you will find that do not make any sense. We say this place is different; you see that now don't you?

Just curious why the islands do not bury power lines, due to storm and external factors that damage poles? The island mentality attributed to officials is not new, as it is prevalent wherever 'they" (anywhere) can get away with it. Does the recent rebellion in Egypt ring a bell? This is STILL part of the United States and these clowns need to get off their collective a**es and DO the JOB!! As islands, they cannot go far, and making excuses for them plays into their own lethargy. People do not swim IF they are allowed to tread water and rest.

Alright then, who will join me in my quest to remove the inadequate higher ups and free St. Thomas from the cruel grips of WAPA? I am going to start this quest and if need be run for governor 🙂 Why should anyone have to live like this? Is it like this on all islands in the Caribbean? In this day and age of high tech there is no need for this kind of inadequacies. We should all live as equals with power like the the rich bastards who can afford their precious generators.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's a little better in Puerto Rico and worse in the Dominican republic.I'll vote for you.

Register to vote - register to run - print the signs - the next election for Senate is Nov. 2012. You will generally need 5-6 thousand votes to get a seat.

Such passionate sentiment from the newcomers - welcome. I can't imagine how you'd feel if you had to drive the roads over here on STX! Luckily there was a small rental car in front of me that fell into the hole near Cheeseburgers on east end road so I could drive right over the top of it (just kidding - about the car, not the hole).

Many freshly minted transplants share in the somewhat naive view that if we'd only get off our collective backsides we could solve all the 'problems'. With limited revenue and a huge over-dependant workforce the ineffectiveness of our government is systemic. This translates to a near hostile business environment, where there are more barriers to success than there are open doors. We each choose our battles and bash our heads against the walls until bloodied and bruised, trying to improve aspects of our island life. The effort can be overwhelming, and while some throw up their hands in acceptance of the status quo (sipping away on a cocktail or two), others continue to soldier on with the support of friends and family. Change here does not come easy and having many part-time residents does not help. You may find in many cases, while seemingly maddening, change does occur albeit at a glacial pace.

So before you run off trying to start a revolution, spend some time with those already in the trenches and grow some perspective on the issues we face. Welcome to the cause 😎

PS. "Positive Is How I Live" (and if you don't know what the source of this is you aint been here long enough).

Love the newbies - thanks for my morning giggle 🙂

Pia

electricity gets to be a smaller or larger part of your perspective depending on your desire to control events of which you have no control over.
Should a storm come you may have to deal with no power for weeks. It is a paradigm shift but it's the island, mon. soon come.

Great post IslandHops!

Sean

Generator at Bordeaux tower STJ has run out of fuel.....someone stole/siphoned it....re-fueler is on the way but radio stations / Broadband VI are impacted. Hopefully they didn't steal the copper ground cables this time.

Dear carygirl & All,

I just read a summary of the outages on VI Daily News. There has been many calls to the Governor to step in and "do something". The response for the Gov.s Office was that the outages are "technical" issues and not "policy issues". I beg to differ. WAPA does what it does under the approval of the government. There is a policy issue that could get changed. BUT ?

In the past 5 or 6 years, WAPA was "forced" to look for creative ways to solve this legacy problem. And mainly now looking to renewal energy. However, WAPA does not write an RFP for power equipment, be it typical power equipment or renewable. No - they write an RFP for a PPA (purchase power agreement), where-by they want Zero Risk to put in cutting edge technology. With a PPA they try to get developers to foot the bill to design, permit, install, operate and insure the project. WAPA expects then to pay the developer much less than what we pay for electric. Say $0.15 per kWh. Then they resell it to you / me at the going price of $0.43 per kWh.

In so doing the above. Very little time and help are provided by WAPA, to facilitate the project development after they select a company (or sucker). The approval process is at the mercy of the various other government agencies. And WAPA can say they are meeting expectations and then stay under the radar.

A very good example of the above is the Alpine Energy project. Need I say more ??? And now with that project, garbage based pellets will be made at Bovoni on STT and shipped to STX for power generation. STT gets ZERO out of that one. Prior to Alpine they wasted 2 years on a PPA for a wind generator project, but the developer (sucker) could not accept the terms / insurance costs in the event the wind mills were taken out by a hurricane.

There is a very similar RFP that is currently on-going for a PPA that will buy 5 Megawatts of PV power on both STT and STX. WAPA did identify a site for STX, but there is no site identified for STT? So for STT, a developer would need to fend for themselves to get land or building roofs identified and leased, etc. And 5MW of PV power, is a lot of panels and a lot of space.

So --> back to this policy thing that doesn't exist. If the government pressured WAPA to get away from this PPA process and jointly with WAPA take some RISK and RESPONSIBILITY for new generating power capacity, I believe things would not drag on through the approval process with the senate and agencies (DPNR, CZM, etc.). If WAPA and the Gov.t were / are responsible, then we can hold their feet to the fire. The current PPA process, let's them off the hook. Why not WAPA take the lead to buy some new stuff.

BTW --> the Senate has yet to approve a land-lease agreement for the Alpine facility at Bovoni. And that is step Number 1 to start the permit approval process. Alpine (good or bad technology) was selected in August 2009. We might see some power from that one by 2015 if Alpine has deep pockets.

So the problems with old equipment drag on. Developers and the good people of the USVI be aware.