Personnel at the Estate Richmond Power Plant on St. Croix have determined that an electrical fault resulting from downed service lines on Feeder 2A led to a shutdown of the plant, which caused an island-wide service interruption Saturday morning.
Chief Operating Officer of Electric System Clinton Hedrington Jr. said the lines came down inside the footprint of the power plant where Feeder 2A originates. The downed lines caused an electrical fault, and the power plant’s protection scheme tripped all online generators, which resulted in the outage.
“The system operated as it should; it saw a major electrical fault, and the protection system tripped the generators to prevent damage to the units. We are continuing our assessment to determine whether scheduled grid maintenance on Feeders 2A and 3A earlier today contributed to the lines coming down. For right now, we made repairs and some other adjustments at both the plant and on the transmission system, and restored service to all customers,” Hedrington said.
He also reported that there were no injuries or other damage associated with the downed lines and subsequent outage.
The service interruption occurred at approximately 8:15 a.m. restoration of service commenced at 10:35 a.m., and full restoration was achieved by 11:15 a.m.
