Households and businesses on St. Thomas and St. John must brace for intensified power cuts in the coming days as the V.I. Water and Power Authority pulls more generating equipment from service for maintenance work at the Randolph Harley Power Plant.
The utility announced Saturday that the temporary shutdown is needed to enable staff and Wärtsilä technicians to safely conduct repairs on several units. Removing additional machinery will deepen the existing shortfall in generating capacity, necessitating more frequent rotational outages across the district.
Some improvement is expected by Monday morning, November 9, when the intensity of scheduled cuts should ease. Yet WAPA warned that power interruptions may persist for up to seven more days, with an estimated end date of Monday, November 16, contingent on how quickly repairs advance.
The current action stems from a November 5 discovery: technicians found a fuel leak in Wärtsilä 6 while assessing damage to Wärtsilä 5. Since both engines occupy the same engine hall, the leak had to be fixed before work could safely begin. WAPA initially projected 48 hours to repair Wärtsilä 6 and roughly seven days for Wärtsilä 5.
The utility recognised the hardship repeated outages have inflicted on residents and businesses, urging conservation of power while generation capacity falls short of demand.
Looking ahead, WAPA is exploring longer-term solutions. Wärtsilä 7 will not be ready for service for about four months. Two standby generators planned for St. John are expected to supply roughly five megawatts once they are installed. The authority is also studying whether a temporary power barge could help bridge the gap, though no timeline for deployment has been set.
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