By By SUZANNE CARLSON Daily News Staff
Copyright virginislandsdailynews
Power failures continued Monday on St. Thomas and St. John, and the V.I. Water and Power Authority has not explained the reason for the ongoing blackouts affecting thousands of customers.
As Virgin Islanders wait for answers, Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. did not hold a press briefing Monday, and his office announced that he had left island and will not be returning until next week without the customary details other than Lt. Gov. Tregenza Roach will serve as acting governor.
Government House Communications Director Richard Motta Jr. did not respond to questions from The Daily News about where Bryan went, when he left, and whether he is on vacation or government business.
The latest power failures started at 3:46 p.m. Monday on Feeder 8A, Yacht Haven, and the mall area on St. Thomas, and WAPA issued an alert saying only that the blackouts were due to “reduced generation capacity.”
Feeder 7B was the next area to be hit, followed by Feeder 9E on St. John, but WAPA provided no information about the cause of the outages.
Statements circulating on social media have criticized WAPA for relying on four Wartsila generators that have been on island since 2021, were finally commissioned in late 2024, and immediately began suffering from serious mechanical failures after a ribbon cutting ceremony in January.
WAPA spokeswoman Shanell Petersen responded to the criticism in a written statement Monday.
“The Phase II Wartsila generating units were procured to provide the Virgin Islands with a modern, efficient, and flexible generation solution. The Phase II engines are designed to operate on either liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or light fuel oil (LFO), allowing WAPA to adapt to changing fuel availability and pricing while ensuring reliability,” according to the statement.
“At present, the units are operating on LFO while work is completed to fully enable their LPG capabilities. Wartsila personnel remain on-site conducting this work under the manufacturer’s warranty, and the warranty period is being extended as needed in accordance with the contract,” Petersen wrote.
She said the units “are designed to meet the needs of WAPA and its customers by moving away from older, less efficient legacy systems toward smaller, more efficient generators that offer both flexibility and cost savings for the community. The Authority has been open and transparent about this process, making the contract documents publicly available and continuing to update stakeholders on the progress.”
Petersen added that, “While unverified assertions may circulate on social media, the facts are clear: the Wartsila Phase II units are the most efficiency units in the territory. The Authority remains committed to providing reliable and affordable power to our customers.”
As of 9 p.m., 2,000 customers on St. John remained without electricity, according to WAPA’s online outage map.
