WAPA's Richmond Powerplant. Photo Credit: V.I. CONSORTIUM
The V.I. Water and Power Authority announced Thursday afternoon that an island-wide power outage has affected St. Croix.
"Please be advised as of 12:46pm, a major electrical service interruption is affecting all customers on the island following the loss of generation capacity at the Estate Richmond Power Plant," WAPA said. "Plant personnel are working safely to restore power to feeders as soon as possible.
The major outage comes as WAPA has been doing damage control following media reports that the authority was hoping to raise rates by 39 percent. "The strategic plan outlines an action plan over the next 12 months focused entirely on point #2 – cutting costs. It does not contemplate a rate increase," WAPA CEO Andrew Smith said of a strategic plan posted on the authority's website.
WAPA did not give a time certain regarding the return of power, but it said customers would have electricity "as soon as possible," and that another updated would be provided "as soon as available."