Commissioner David Hughes told a developer of a proposed waste-to-energy project on St. John that completing a project in the territory could be “painful.”
The history of the solar projects and energy-efficient generators aired at the Public Services Commission on Tuesday illustrates that pain.
The Wartsila generators, which have been in the territory for over three years, have only produced electricity for a couple of months and are not running now.
Water and Power Authority Executive Director Karl Knight told the commissioners that two Wartsila generators would be online this month and the other two in April. While contract disagreements and WAPA payments caused earlier delays, Knight said the present problem was caused by fuel pumps injecting metal shards into the generators.
Even if projects are painful, that doesn’t mean they don’t get done. Solar project developers have been coming before the PSC for over two decades. In 2014, a couple were approved and built: the four-megawatt development at Spanish Town on St. Croix and the six-megawatt farm in Estate Donoe on St. Thomas.
Christian Loranger of VIElectron reported to the commission Tuesday on two more solar farms that are much larger and producing power to go to the Water and Power Authority. The Petronella farm may produce up to 10 megawatts of power, and the farm at Hogansborg may produce up to 12 megawatts. His firm is also working on a project in Estate Fortuna to be finished this year and one on St. John that could be done in 2026.
Jason LeVesconte made the presentation for Advance Sustainable Technologies on the St. John waste-to-energy project. He said the project would alleviate the territory’s landfill problems while contributing energy to the grid. He said they were confident about an agreement for power purchase. He said the price of the energy it sells to WAPA is the central point that needs to be resolved.
Alpine Energy proposed a waste-to-energy project on St. Thomas in 2008. The Senate killed it in 2010 when it refused to lease property to the developer.
The commission voted to approve electric LEAC, which will remain at 22.2 cents per kilowatt-hour, and water, which will remain at $9.53 per 1,000 gallons. The commission had heard a recommendation that the electric LEAC be reduced to 18 cents because WAPA’s fuel expenses would go down as the Wartsilas came online again. WAPA said it charged customers $139 million less than it should have to cover fuel costs in recent years.
The authority also reported to the commission on the $30 million four-year contract it awarded Itron to replace its failed advanced metering infrastructure, or AMI. AMI is supposed to allow the authority to remotely determine its customers’ energy usage and bills. The system originally installed in 2015 has failed, leading to WAPA estimating many customers’ bills and many customer complaints.
