Members of the Water and Power Authority Governing Board approved a motion to review its settlement deal with Wartsila, LLC. The vote took place in an executive session held during an emergency board meeting on Tuesday.
The $35 million dollar settlement was reached in late 2021 over the installation of propane-fired generators for the Randolph Harley Power Plant. Board member Juanita Young said the review was intended to find a way to “get them back to work and complete the project.”
“The approval of the Wartsila settlement agreement, once fully executed, ensures meaningful progress will resume on the installation & commissioning of highly efficient generators and the 9MW battery energy storage system (BESS),” according to a statement issued by the utility late Tuesday evening.
Public pressure to complete the generator project became more pronounced recently as power failures and scheduled rotating outages have disrupted service territory-wide. Consternation among government leaders may have factored into the June 2 resignation of WAPA Chief Executive Officer Andrew Smith. Just before they began the closed-door session, board members discussed the day-long outage that struck St. John on May 24.
Problems with an undersea power cable were given as the cause, but preventing it from happening again led the board back to Wartsila. WAPA’s Water Director, Don Gregoire, pointed out that the contractor was given the task of constructing two standby power plants for St. John in a project funded by FEMA.
Without standby capabilities, he said, St. John will face repeated disruptions. “Right now, there is one line on St. John, which is a significant point of failure,” Gregoire said.
At Tuesday’s meeting, board members also approved an extension on a contract for Evertech, a company that provides billing services. WAPA’s Treasury Director, Michael Dow, said the Evertech contract expires on June 10. Because a new contract would require review by WAPA’s chief financial officer, additional time was needed to allow that process to take place, Dow said.
The board agreed to grant an extension on the current contract until Sept. 24.
