Sept. 3 | 8.30 p.m.
WAPA spokesperson Shanell Petersen said Wednesday that the initial smaller outage was caused by a failure at the Harley Power Plant’s LPG terminal. This failure shut down all St. Thomas-St. John units running on LPG and triggered an underfrequency event — meaning the plant wasn’t producing enough power to meet demand — which first affected the first handful of feeders.
The exact cause of the terminal failure is still under investigation, though Petersen noted that elevated temperatures continue to put strain on the grid, the full impact of which is still being assessed.
Crews from Saintnals, the company contracted to manage the LPG terminal, are on site working alongside WAPA teams to resolve the issue.
Meanwhile, WAPA crews are continuing efforts to restore power to all feeders, the remainder of which were knocked out during a failed attempt to bring Unit 15 online and stabilize the grid. As of this update, Feeders 9B and 5A have been restored, while Feeder 8B has been partially restored.
Another update is expected around 9:00 p.m.
Sept. 3 | 7 p.m.
A photo circulating online and a late-afternoon power outage across St. Thomas–St. John Wednesday had residents speculating about a possible explosion at the Randolph Harley Power Plant. However, officials say there’s no emergency.
Shanell Petersen, spokesperson for the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority, told the Source Wednesday night that the smoke seen coming from the plant was not the result of an explosion or fire.
According to WAPA, the outage began when the plant experienced a low-frequency event earlier in the afternoon, affecting two feeders. In an effort to stabilize the system, operators attempted to bring Unit 15 online. That attempt failed, resulting in smoke being released from one of the plant’s stacks, and the district’s remaining feeders being affected — but again, no fire was reported.
As of 7 p.m. Wednesday evening, there was no estimated timeline for full power restoration, though crews continue to work on resolving and investigating the issue.
The Source will provide updates as they become available. Customers are also encouraged to monitor WAPA’s official Facebook page for the latest information.
