July 30, 2003 – The kind of outage that left East End residents without power for about two hours Tuesday afternoon should not happen anymore once the Water and Power Authority completes its plans for a third feeder from WAPA'S Subbase plant to the East End.
Right now there are two feeders, which are like gigantic extension cords, to the East End, Glenn Rothgeb, WAPA's chief operating officer, explained Wednesday.
Feeder No. 12 goes directly from the plant to Beltjen Road, Rothgeb said, and No. 11 goes beyond Beltjen Road to the Tutu substation near K-mart and to the East End station near the National Guard Armory. From the substations power is then dispersed to homes in the area and to St. John.
When the cable was damaged between Sugar Estate and Fort Myler Tuesday power was transferred to a second cable, which was subsequently damaged causing the power on the east half of the island to be out from about 3 p.m. until 5 p.m. when it was mostly restored, according to Rothgeb.
The only area that remained out at 5 p.m. was near Lockhart School. That was restored just after 6 p.m., Rothgeb said.
The third feeder, which Rothgeb said would be in place by late 2003 or early 2004 will run underground, using spare conduit, from Subbase to Beltjen Road in WAPA's existing duct banks under the Waterfront and Main Street.
From Beltjen Road the feeder will continue underground to the Roy L. Schneider Hospital and then continue above ground to the Tutu and East End stations.
It will also be instrumental in the additional power that will go to St. John's new substation when it is built.
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