Critical replacement parts from Texas and Missouri have arrived in the Virgin Islands, and crews are repairing GE Unit 27 at the Randolph Harley Power Plant, the V.I. Water and Power Authority reported early Saturday. The work follows days of outages in St. Thomas and St. John that disrupted households and businesses and prompted public school and government office closures.
In its 2 a.m. update, WAPA said the parts had arrived and crews were actively working on the unit. The authority did not provide a completion time or confirm that Unit 27 had returned to service, and full restoration had not been announced as of Saturday morning.
WAPA had reported stable restoration for some customers in a separate update issued at 6:30 p.m. Friday. That notice, repeated beneath Saturday’s repair update, also warned that insufficient generation would leave customers experiencing intermittent power as personnel continued restoration efforts.
The authority said Friday that it had sourced a Variable Stator Vane actuator needed to return Unit 27 to service, with installation anticipated Saturday. WAPA expects the repair to suspend the major outages affecting the St. Thomas–St. John district once the unit is successfully brought back online. However, it cautioned that limited generation capacity and insufficient backup capacity would leave customers vulnerable to further interruptions if other equipment fails.
The latest repair effort follows a districtwide blackout Wednesday evening and another loss of service early Thursday after partial restoration. As the Consortium previously reported, WAPA’s initial Wednesday alert said a loss of generation at Randolph Harley was affecting all customers in St. Thomas and St. John. Several feeders regained power that night, but an alert received at 2:21 a.m. Thursday again reported an outage affecting all customers on both islands.
The generation shortfall also led Governor Albert Bryan Jr. to close public schools and Executive Branch government offices in the St. Thomas–St. John district Friday. Essential government personnel were required to report to work to maintain critical services.
