As WAPA Lags Behind, PSC Considering Issuing RFPs to Transform Territory's Electric Systems to Renewable Energy Backup

The Public Services Commission on Friday conveyed its frustration with the V.I. Water and Power Authority's slow pace in moving the territory away from traditional power plant electric generation with fossil fuel to the increasingly cost-effective renewable energy backup such as solar.

WAPA Interim CEO Noel Hodge turned over questioning on the matter to Vernon Alexander, director of project management at WAPA, who spoke of ongoing land acquisition efforts for solar farms on St. Croix.

One pending project whose timeline was not discussed includes a solar plant on land across the Agricultural Fair Grounds on St. Croix that would produce 18 megawatts of solar and 18 megawatts of storage, according to Mr. Alexander. He said the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, or NREL has been providing guidance to the authority. NREL specializes in the research and development of renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy systems integration, and sustainable transportation. It also partners with industry, government agencies, and research and nonprofit organizations to accelerate the transition of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies to the marketplace.

PSC Chairman David Hughes expressed frustration that while other jurisdictions were moving quickly with integration of renewable forms of energy, the territory continues to lag behind, and even when it goes into agreements to install solar farms, the kilowatt per hour usage ends up being much higher than industry standards, providing little relief to customers.

Mr. Hughes spoke of the Hawaii island of Kauai, which has transitioned to nearly 100 percent renewable backup. "They used to have the highest rates, exceeding our own for power, and now they are down almost in the category where they can compete with places like California and other states and jurisdictions," Mr. Hughes said during the Friday PSC meeting.

He added, "It's been a remarkable transition for Hawaii and it's an excellent model for the Virgin Islands because it's a very similar situation — the high cost of fuel to be transported in, and the reliability issues and the weather issues that they sustained. That project was completed in 2012; I would challenge the idea that this is new technology at this point. The state of California has actually required that storage and PV replace new gas turbine generation for baseload generation, so this is getting to be settled technology and the availability of batteries not withstanding, I think it is something that we could certainly implement here quickly."

Baseload generation is the minimum level of demand on an electrical grid over a span of time.

Mr. Alexander said financing such efforts would be difficult. "If we could find someone who could finance this project and try to have it expedited we would definitely welcome that offer," he said.

Mr. Hughes pointed to NextEra Energy, located in Florida. "They call me all the time asking for entry to this market. This is a very small project for them, but an RFP could be issued tomorrow for solar and storage in the Virgin Islands at grid-scale stateside rates."