ST. JOHN — A critical backup component of St. John’s electrical system has been repaired and was being energized Thursday, marking another step in WAPA’s effort to restore redundancy to an island that endured several prolonged power disruptions earlier this year.
During the V.I. Water and Power Authority’s Governing Board meeting on September 24, WAPA CEO and Executive Director Karl Knight said work on the Cabrita Point Distribution Circuit had been completed. “The repair work is done,” he announced, expressing hope that the circuit, which provides a backup to Feeder 7E, would be fully energized by Thursday night.
The Cabrita Point project is particularly important because it gives WAPA another pathway for supplying St. John when other parts of the transmission and distribution system fail or must be taken offline. WAPA previously said the redundant connection was lost following Hurricanes Irma and Maria and that restoring it would allow the utility to reroute power during maintenance, equipment failures and unexpected outages, potentially reducing both the frequency and duration of service interruptions.
Mr. Knight paired the Cabrita Point progress with the arrival of new standby generation intended for St. John, telling board members that the generators were “on island, in hand.” Four new Cummins generators, each capable of producing 2.5 megawatts, arrived in the territory in August, providing a combined 10 megawatts of standby capacity once installed and commissioned. WAPA previously said installation, testing and startup were projected for completion by January 2027.
Together, the projects are intended to address vulnerabilities exposed during a series of major outages earlier this year. On February 6, St. John suffered an islandwide outage after the transmission line supplying the island tripped. WAPA later identified multiple points of failure involving the switchgear, transmission breaker, distribution feeder and equipment within the substation.
Another major disruption followed in March after WAPA said apparent intentional damage was discovered on the transmission line serving St. John. The initial outage began March 14, and although power was restored, another failure on the backup route again knocked the island offline. The disruptions left residents dealing with spoiled food, lost medication and other consequences of extended periods without electricity.
Mr. Knight told the board Thursday that work is also progressing on the Great Bay transmission line, another important piece of infrastructure serving St. John. “Hopefully in the not too distant future, I’ll be able to make a similar announcement that that line has also been repaired,” he said.
The WAPA chief cautioned that repairing the Great Bay line, which was damaged years ago, is more complicated than the work at Cabrita Point. “That line at Great Bay does carry the telecommunications for St. John,” he said. Despite the additional complexity, Mr. Knight said he expects the repair to be completed in the coming months. “We’ll get that one done before the year is out as well.”
Restoring the Cabrita Point circuit, repairing the Great Bay line and establishing standby generation on St. John are all part of WAPA’s broader effort to rebuild layers of redundancy around an island that remains dependent on electrical infrastructure connecting it to St. Thomas. The Cabrita Point milestone means one of those backup pathways is now substantially restored, while the utility continues work on the remaining pieces intended to make another prolonged islandwide disruption less likely.
