WAPA Advances Emergency Generation Plan for St. Thomas-St. John After Unanimous Board Approval

The V.I. Water and Power Authority says it is moving forward with an emergency generation plan for the St. Thomas-St. John district after unanimous board approval, in an effort to strengthen near-term reliability and reduce the risk of extended outages on both islands.

The plan calls for the deployment of five Caterpillar generator units through partnerships with Wagner Power Systems and MacAllister Machinery Company, Inc., with WAPA targeting delivery and commissioning within approximately four to six months.

According to the authority, the emergency deployment strategy includes two 3.0 megawatt units, one 2.5 megawatt unit, and two 2.0 megawatt units. WAPA said the effort was developed in response to urgent system reliability needs in the district and is the result of coordination across its technical, operations, and procurement teams, along with local and federal partners.

A key advantage, WAPA said, is that three of the power generation engines are already configured for 13.8 kV operation, allowing them to be integrated directly into the grid without the need for step-up transformers. The authority said that feature will simplify installation and reduce field complexity.