Blackouts Impact U.S. Virgin Islands Amid Efforts to Restore Power

St. Thomas and St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands experienced a total blackout early Sunday, marking the second outage of the weekend. The Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority attributed these interruptions to a loss of generation at a power plant. Although power was restored after the first blackout on Saturday, a second one occurred soon after.

St. Thomas, with over 42,000 residents, and St. John, home to nearly 4,000 people, have witnessed more frequent outages recently. This situation has caused widespread frustration, as seen in the surge of social media calls for government action to restore reliable electricity service.

Governor Albert Bryan Jr. has committed to resolving these issues by directing around $100 million of federal funds towards the utility. Despite this investment, the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority continues to face significant challenges in maintaining service. Officials reported to legislators in April that common causes of the outages include storms, equipment shortages, weak generation capacity, equipment breakdowns, and years of deferred maintenance.

Many of the petroleum-fueled generating units in the U.S. territory are over 25 years old, as per the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Additionally, hurricanes Irma and Maria in September 2017 severely damaged up to 90% of the islands’ transmission and distribution infrastructure.

The utility plans to install temporary generation units and additional battery energy storage at a key power plant in the coming months to curb outages. Renewable energy accounts for a mere 3% of the region’s power capacity. Notably, electricity in the U.S. Virgin Islands costs about 33 cents per kilowatt hour, significantly higher than the U.S. average of 16 cents.