Dear Source:
It seems everybody wants to criticize WAPA, and no one offers any concrete suggestions. The hard reality is that the days of cheap oil are over. I just calculated what my last power bill ($113.85) here in Florida would be on St. Croix ($478.26). That's not for lot of power, either, just slightly over 1000 KWH.
The answer to this is going to be coal. It costs far less than oil. Atomic power would be prohibitive. Wind power isn't suitable as a sole method of generation, nor is solar.
There needs to be a coal fired plant on St. Croix, and undersea power cables linking all the U.S. Virgin Islands. Hovensa generates and uses a lot of electricity at the refinery, and the oil isn't cheap for them either. Wouldn't a cooperative effort among all the parties to bring about a coal fired plant make sense? I really think that Hovensa would buy power from a reliable provider if it made economic sense for them to do so.
And at the same time, get WAPA out of the generation business so they can concentrate their efforts on distribution and improving their efficiency at delivering that power.
There is no way out of this situation that's painless. Oil is going to get higher and higher in the future. Coal is in abundant supply, and it can be shipped anywhere at reasonable cost.
Perhaps the VI government should contact Florida Power and Light about this. FP&L is one of the best managed power companies in the world. We have had rate increases, partly due to all the hurricanes in the past few years, but FP&L hasn't killed us. They just might be willing to assist.
Dan Hazen
Port Charlotte, Florida
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