Residents on St. Thomas and St. John should expect the possibility of continued rotating power outages until at least one additional generating unit is restored, according to Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority Executive Director Karl Knight, who updated the governing board Thursday via Teams meeting on the utility’s ongoing generation challenges.
Knight said WAPA is operating with limited reserve capacity after multiple generating units either failed or are operating below their rated output, leaving the authority vulnerable to load shedding whenever demand exceeds available generation.
“The main issue that we’re faced with today is loss of generation capacity and insufficient generation capacity,” Knight told board members. “We’re basically using our reserve capacity right now, and so we don’t have a lot of room for equipment malfunction without having to shed load.”
Knight explained that Units 15 and 23 remain offline, while Unit 27 continues to operate below full capacity because of a faulty fuel valve. Two Wartsila engines are also out of service as technicians work alongside WAPA mechanics to complete repairs.
“We’re relatively confident that once that repair is complete, we can get back to a relative mode of normal operations,” Knight said, referring to the replacement of the fuel valve on Unit 27, which he expects to arrive later this week. “We will take the opportunity to take down the unit long enough to effectuate that repair and get Unit 27 closer to its rated capacity.”
Knight also addressed reports circulating on social media and in local news suggesting rotating outages would continue for the next three months.
“It is certainly not our expectation or anticipation at this point in time,” Knight said. “We’re not predicting rotations. We are basically saying that this is a possibility because we are in the summer and we don’t have a lot of room for equipment malfunction without having to shed load.”
Knight noted that solar generation has helped reduce the need for daytime load shedding, although output has been affected by Saharan dust. During questioning from board member Kyle Fleming, WAPA officials clarified the midday generation shortfall is about four megawatts, increasing to between four and eight megawatts during the evening peak, when two feeders may have to be rotated.
Following the operations update, the governing board entered executive session to discuss legal and personnel matters. Returning to open session, member Fleming announced that the board approved an extension related to a legal matter by a 5-1 vote and unanimously approved action on a personnel matter.
The board then unanimously approved WAPA’s Fiscal Year 2027 electric and water budgets after management presented minor revisions made since last week’s budget workshop.
Knight said staff revisited the proposal after identifying an error in the original presentation.
“We did present the budget last week. There was one error that we asked the board’s indulgence for us to take another look at,” Knight said. “We did go back and subsequently make some adjustments to the personnel line items” as well as fuel-related costs to meet operational demands.
Chief Financial Officer Lorraine Kelly said the proposed FY2027 electric budget totals $275.8 million in expenditures with a balanced cash flow. The water budget projects $35.7 million in revenue, $34.9 million in expenditures and a $800,000 free cash flow surplus.
“The governing board bylaws require approval of each fiscal year’s budget,” Kelly said. “Having an approved budget for the fiscal year is critical to the effective management of the authority’s financial position and ability to direct its future initiatives.”
Kelly noted that the document presented to the board was a summary budget and said management would provide lawmakers with a more comprehensive financial presentation after receiving board approval.
“We will have a full presentation of the detail that supports this, assuming that we have approval today from the board,” she said.
Board members present for the meeting included Maurice Muia Chairman, Xavier Acevedo, Kyle Fleming, Hubert Turnbull, Cheryl Boynes-Jackson and Joan Foy.
