Rotational outages continued across St. Thomas and St. John Tuesday after a key generator failed again just one day after being returned to service, further straining an already limited power supply.
In a statement issued Tuesday, the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority acknowledged the “continued hardship” facing residents and apologized for the disruption to homes, businesses, and essential services. At approximately 9:25 a.m., Unit 15 — one of the Randolph Harley Power Plant’s aging generators — tripped again, triggering a districtwide interruption. WAPA said plant personnel identified additional mechanical defects as the root cause and will continue efforts to keep the unit available until its replacement is in service under the Prudent Replacement program.
The authority said efforts to restore Unit 27 are progressing and represent the fastest path to restoring generating capacity. Replacement parts are expected to arrive from Florida by Thursday so crews can begin accelerated repairs, while work on Unit 15 continues simultaneously. Until sufficient capacity is restored, outages are expected to continue, particularly during peak usage periods between approximately 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 p.m.
The repairs come as the territory continues work toward replacing its aging power infrastructure through a FEMA-funded “prudent replacement” initiative, which includes rebuilding the Randolph Harley Plant on St. Thomas and the Richmond Plant on St. Croix. Puerto Rico-based RG Engineering was selected in December to lead design and pre-construction work for both sites under a progressive design-build approach.
However, the broader contract needed to move the project into its next phase — including the installation of temporary generation tied to that effort — has not yet been finalized. The agreement, being negotiated between the Public Finance Authority and the Office of Disaster Recovery, is expected to allow additional capacity to come online while long-term replacements are built.
Asked Monday afternoon for an update, the Office of Disaster Recovery responded Tuesday to say negotiations are ongoing. “The PFA and ODR are in the final stage of negotiating the contract terms,” officials said. When asked if a timeline could be provided, ODR added, “Since the contract is under negotiation, there are not any specifics that can be disclosed at this time.”
Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. said during his weekly press briefing Monday that the territory’s response is focused on repairing existing units and bringing additional generation online, rather than pursuing an emergency declaration. He said such a declaration is typically used to unlock funding or bypass procurement, neither of which he believes is limiting the response at this stage.
Bryan added that he had hoped to see improvements as soon as Tuesday, but more realistically by the end of the week.
