A district-wide electrical service interruption affected the islands of St. Thomas, St. John, Hassel Island and Water Island on Wednesday night after one generating unit tripped followed by the subsequent failure of two other units.
The district was affected by a major electrical service interruption that occurred after all power generation capacity at the Randolph Harley Power Plant was lost.
“WAPA’s Unit 15, a 20- megawatt generator, tripped at approximately 7:20 p.m. on a fuel-related issue; two rental units, 26 and 27, subsequently tripped after being unable to maintain the demand for electrical service,” said Executive Director and CEO Lawrence J. Kupfer.
“Our engineers will work alongside APR Energy to determine why the rental units are unable to maintain functionality once a WAPA-owned generator trips. This is a lingering challenge that will be revisited until a permanent resolution is arrived at,” he said.
Personnel successfully restarted one of the tripped units shortly before 9 p.m., which allowed for the commencement of service restoration to customers. Full restoration was achieved at 10:11 p.m., Wednesday. At the time of full service restoration, three generating units were on-line powering the St. Thomas-St. John District.
