Wapa

WAPA to Pay Propane Supplier Additional $300,000 Monthly For Fuel After Board Approves $.5 Cents Increase; WAPA Says Costs Will Not Be Passed on to Customers

The governing board of the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority voted Tuesday to approve an increase of $.5 cents in the per gallon price of propane fuel. The increase, which WAPA says will have no effect on electrical rates for its customers, comes at the request of VITOL to continue the postponement (forbearance) of payments the authority makes to VITOL for infrastructure, operations and maintenance costs. WAPA said it requested the forbearance as a result of the affect of the Covid-19 pandemic on the authority's finances. WAPA suspended disconnection of electrical and portable delinquent accounts since mid-march. Disconnection is the authority's main tool to force customers to pay. WAPA pays VITOL roughly $10 million annually in operations and maintenance (O&M) costs for the two propane terminals, one on St. Thomas and the other on St. Croix, the authority made known. The cost to payback VITOL for the roughly $167 million the company spent to build the propane terminals (infras...