Jan. 7, 2002 – A blown insulator at the Water and Power Authority plant in Krum Bay began the power outages that plagued St. Thomas, St. John and Water Island beginning Sunday afternoon and continuing through the night and into Monday morning.
As a result of damage, power-generating units 22 and 18 went down, causing ongoing outages across the islands.
Glenn Rothgeb, WAPA assistant executive director, said Monday morning that units 11, 14 and 18 were back on line and that he expected unit 13 would be back up shortly and "this will all be over."
Rothgeb said the problems are the same as those that caused outages a few months ago.
Basically two issues face the power authority, he said: The insulators need to be replaced, and the new unit 22 isn't perfectly compatible with WAPA's system and has therefore been less than reliable.
Rothgeb said replacing the insulators has been high on the list of WAPA priorities for 10 years, but lack of money has kept it from happening. Now, he said, replacing the insulators has now moved way up on the list.
He also said that because of unit 22's "tighter tolerance," the unit tripped off a few dozen times Sunday. The relay systems between unit 22 and the other units are incompatible, something that was not evident in the testing stage and came to light only when problems arose.
"The relay settings and protective devices on unit 22 will have to be changed to correspond with island reality," he said.
Rothgeb explained that units 11 and 13 are steam units and take four hours to come back on line after going down.
He couldn't say when power would be fully restored. "As soon as any other units" come back up, "this should be ending," he said.
At least two school closings have been announced as a result of the outages. New Testament School in Anna's Retreat and Sts. Peter and Paul School will not hold classes Monday. All Saints Cathedral School will hold classes.
Public schools are closed for the Three Kings Day holiday.
To find out what feeder you are on click here.
