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PRINTElectrical service was interrupted across St. Thomas Monday night after a generating unit at the Harley Plant tripped offline earlier in the day, forcing V.I. Water and Power Authority personnel to repair gas turbine unit 23.
According to WAPA, service was interrupted until about 9 p.m. to the feeders 7D, providing power to Emerald Hill, Frydendahl, Point Pleasant, Red Hook, Smith Bay and neighboring areas, and Feeder Ridge Road, including Secret Harbor, Cabrita Point, Ridge Road and neighboring areas.
Service is expected to be interrupted until about 9:30 p.m. to portions of the following feeders:
- Portions of #8B—with the exception of the Carnival village;
- Portions of Feeder #9E serving St. John;
- Portions of #7A—serving St. Thomas’ north side.
I live in the 7A feeder service area.
Power went out at 9AM until 1:30PM yesterday, was on until 7PM, then out again for 2 hours, then finally came back on at 9PM! Only 7 and a 1/2 hours with no power, plus could only get 1 bar on AT&T cell phone so yesterday was not a productive day for me nor many others in this and other areas so affected/afflicted!
This is the 15th WAPA outage experienced on 7A feeder in the last 6 weeks. Even for WAPA this must be something close to a record.
Governor DeJongh and Senators, I urge you to get your act together and get moving on making WAPA move into the 21st century.
This does not mean spending our money on an overly expensive underwater cable to PR to be at the mercy of their rates nor all the other unsound and frankly ridiculous ideas that ya'll manage to come up with.
It means taking that money and upgrading WAPA to a utility that functions and generates affordable and consistent power for the people of the Virgin Islands.
Before you waste, misspend, mismanage, misuse or steal any more of our Taxpayer and Federal funds, We Need RELIABLE AND AFFORDABLE electricity.
And we need it before any funds go for a $55 MILLION DOLLAR Sports Stadium in STX and all the other creative ways you find to divert funds to unproven companies with no track records and your deep pockets.
We would not be having this problem today, had Southern Energy been allowed to purchase WAPA all those years ago but "Hey, we don't want people with proven track records coming in to tell us how to run ting dem!"
How about bringing in proven companies that make solar powered systems and wind generators, make programs to allow people to purchase these at reduced costs with the money available UP-FRONT so that all people and not just the wealthy can afford to have power year round!
Also make it so that there are not 99 hoops to jump through and more expense from WAPA for permits, etc., to install these systems.
We can't depend on WAPA. The constant outages along with high costs of fuel for generator use impacts all of our productivity and earning power.
How are we to continue to pay for all those creative tax and rate increases you continue to stick to the VI taxpayer when you DO NOT and CANNOT provide even the most basic of services?
Gee, whatever you do, don't let the lights go out in Carnival Village! By all means, do have an expensive fireworks display and let's continue to pay for our senators to enjoy themselves while we all attempt to continue figure out how to pay our bills and pay for the excesses and waste by our elected and appointed officials.
During the last 20 years, our islands have gone to hell! Guess whose fault that might be?
Make that 16 OUTAGES in 6 weeks as power just went off, AGAIN, this morning!
And, once again, who knows for how long as one cannot get hold of WAPA and they make NO Announcements so you cannot plan on how to spend your time in the event of a prolonged outage or when to prepare for the next one.
Only one bar from AT&T cell phone service again as well so another unproductive day looms ahead!
Thank you WAPA, Governor and Senators.
We really do live in a 3rd world.