V.I. Water and Power Authority officials unveiled plans Thursday to build a new substation on St. Croix, with hopes of alleviating stress put on the island’s only other facility.
"St. Croix, being the largest island, currently only has one substation, which causes a significant voltage drop-down in the western part of the island, with the distribution having to go quite a long distance from Richmond (Power Plant) to Frederiksted," WAPA’s Executive Director Hugo Hodge Jr. told his board during a meeting on St. Thomas.
Hodge said the new facility allows for a 69 KV (i.e., kilovolt) transmission from the Richmond Plant to the new substation, and the distribution of 25 KV to the western part of the island.
"Feeders 10 and 8 would then come from there, as well as dedicated feeds for the Cruzan expansion and Diageo and industrial areas over there," Hodge said.
The building of the substation will be done in two phases: the construction and installation of the building (to include the basement, vaults, duct work and transformer pads) and then the buying and installation of equipment.
The first phase is estimated to cost $3.7 million, which will be funded through WAPA’s 2010 bond proceeds. The project was linked at first to the Alpine Energy Group’s waste-to-energy project, which had included a substation, but Hodge said that the authority realized after controversy broke out about the plant using pet coke that "we couldn’t have something as important as this dependent on whether or not the public or the Legislature approves of such a project."
WAPA instead went to the bond market last January for a refinancing, and funding to get some of its capital projects going, Hodge said. If Alpine does get off the ground with its new waste-to-energy proposal, then maybe WAPA could reallocate the bond money for other things, he said.
WAPA board members approved a $3.7-million contract with Dashiell Corp. for the first phase of the project. The entire project is expected to cost $9.9 million.
The board also approved a request for Siemens Energy to conduct an additional study on the interconnection between the territory and Puerto Rico.
"This additional study will determine the relative impact of the interconnection project on the maximum amount of wind and solar generation that can be installed and absorbed in WAPA’s electrical system," said board member Gerald Groner. "The system’s performance with or without the interconnection will be compared as well."
Groner said the work, which will cost another $90,000, will take an additional 12 weeks, but that the money will be coming from the existing grant for the project.
The board also approved:
-a $295,000 contract extension with Ernst and Young to perform the authority’s single audit, and an audit of its financial statements, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2011;
-an emergency contract with Arcadis for the stack, or air pollution, testing required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of units at the Richmond pump station at a total cost of $405,000 (Hodge said many of Arcadis’ employees were part of the original company, MACTEC, that previously did the testing for WAPA, but its permit is no longer in existence. Hodge said it would take more time than is available to go out to bid for other companies, and that it would be more efficient to work with someone who was familiar with the authority.)
Board members also discussed plans to change WAPA’s bill format. New software would be required to make the bills more readable, and for them to include more of an explanation about the Levelized Energy Adjustment Clause (LEAC).
The board also elected Juanita Young as chairwoman, Groner as vice chair and Noel Loftus as secretary.
Board members present Thursday were Brenda Benjamin, Alicia Barnes, Loftus, Cheryl Boynes-Jackson, Groner, Karl Knight and Wayne Biggs.
