WAPA Warned: Change or Face Catastrophe

havent they been told that for years

I especially liked the recommendation:
"adding someone experienced in power generation to WAPA's upper management team."

5 years to do a audit that states , from the article, points that are obvious to any person that has lived here for any length of time. Was nice to see that report does make mention of the fact that if they dont get act together that they should consider a sale. Recommending that they upgrade portions of the plant that are aged ( have heard some part are almost 50) again a no brainer. Not to slight audit company but I would again say kinda a no brainer. Nice to hear they got 2 rate increases in the 5 years that they didnt do audit but yet audit was supposed to be done before rate increases were issued......

Nothing new here. I'm certainly glad I've gone to solar power though.

Don't rub it in, Vicanuck.;)
Wish I could afford to go that route, too, as do many others, I'm sure.

http://www.energy-grants.net/vi-u-s-virgin-islands-energy-efficiency-renewable-energy-rebate-program/

The USVI offers some pretty substantial rebates for going solar or adding a wind turbine. It might be a lot more affordable than you think. Even if you had to take a loan with the energy costs I keep reading about it should be a fairly quick payback.

The federal 30% rebate expires in 2016...better hurry because that rebate will never be offered again by the feds (especially not republicans).

The other thing to consider is the increase in the value of your home once solar is installed.

Alana33...a few of my STX real estate friends suggest having a solar system increases the value of your VI home by roughly twice the cost of the system, ie: system costs $26,000 so increases home value by approx. $52,000. Whats your thought on this? Agree or disagree?

Not sure on the double the investment cost, have to do a little research on that, possibly ask an appraiser friend.

Thanks for the info on the expiration of the federal rebate.
Thanks for the link, UA23fitter.

It would be wonderful not to be at the mercy of WAPA and all the outages experienced in my location. One of which was earlier today.
Lately, power goes off, then comes back on within 15 min. but it's still an outage and still annoying.

My stateside friends look at me like I've been eating hallucinogenic mushrooms when I ask them what they do when they have power outages. They just don't. Not like we experience here on a regular basis.

I used to have outages quite a bit stateside for several years including running the jenny for a week after Fran and another after big ice storm. Then I got a bigger generator to run on nat gas and the outages dwindled to almost 0. Now the UPSs keep things going during the occasional 2 second blips. Need to get a jenny for the STX Condo, don't think solar is an option.

Are there any permits left for new system installations or are the rest of us out of luck because WAPA has reached their cap for net metering? Thanks.