Solar Power Provider Threatens to go Dark Unless WAPA Pays Its Bill

The territory’s only functioning solar farms might go dark if the Water and Power Authority doesn’t start paying for the electricity it takes and resells, company officials told regulators Tuesday.

BMR Energy’s two companies, Spanish Town Estate Solar in St. Croix and Donoe Solar in St. Thomas, sell solar-generated electricity to WAPA at between 17 cents per kilowatt hour and 13.9 cents per kilowatt hour — far less than it costs WAPA to generate a kilowatt hour, CEO Bruce Levy told the Public Services Commission.

WAPA paid for three months when the contracts were signed and then stopped, with the exception of one recent payment, Levy said. The outstanding bill is now near $5 million.

“What’s been happening for the last two and a half years for Spanish Town, and a year or so for Donoe, is we’ve been delivering power and WAPA has not been able to pay. We’re going broke. We’re still here but just barely. We don’t fix things when they break and it is unsustainable,” Levy said.