St. Thomas was plunged into an island-wide blackout Thursday afternoon, when workers at the V.I. Water and Power Authority restarted Unit 11, the waste heat recovery boiler, and it tripped another generating unit, according to WAPA spokeswoman Cassandra Dunn.
Dunn said there is no timetable for restoration of power, but the utility is working throughout the night.
The authority has also been hindered in delivering water due to another equipment problem that surfaced Thursday morning, and pumping on a schedule that would have called for water from 7 to 9 p.m. has been re-scheduled for one hour tonight from 10 to 11 p.m, according to WAPA.
In a news release issued at 4:30 p.m., WAPA public information officer Kinila C. Paige said technical personnel worked on the water problem all day, making headway on the repairs. However, she added, the authority did not expect to meet its evening water pumping schedule (7 to 9 p.m.).
WAPA was still working to get three of the new temporary reverse osmosis plants online, in addition to boiler Unit No. 11, and at least one of the desalination plants into service to resolve the water outage, but with the power outage there are likely no guarantees to either service being restored quickly.
Paige said the authority regrets the inconvenience to its customers, and WAPA is working around the clock to restore water service as soon as possible. It is unclear when the power will be restored.
