PSC, WAPA Reach Detente in Reissued Fuel Solicitation

The V.I. Public Services Commission appeared satisfied Tuesday with the Water and Power Authority’s selection of Carib Gas as the utility’s long-term fuel supplier after several months of occasionally tense meetings about WAPA’s procurement practices.

The utility’s governing board approved the selection during a regular meeting in December, four months after rescinding a previously approved contract with Empire Gas amid questions about the utility’s due diligence. WAPA first issued a request for proposals in April but scrapped the process because the pricing proposals from four respondents “did not leave us any place differently than we had been, nor had the payment terms improved,” WAPA Chief Executive Karl Knight told the PSC in August. WAPA’s governing board narrowly approved the first contract with Empire in July after the utility engaged directly with the Puerto Rico-based supplier, alarming legislators, other bidders and at least one board member.

In September, PSC Vice Chair David Hughes grilled WAPA’s leadership for reissuing an RFP without making significant changes. Hughes noted that a number of respondents had taken issue with a provision requiring local storage.

“So you didn’t listen to the vendors that said that that was completely unnecessary — and that was exclusionary to all but one party,” he said at the time. “You kept that local storage requirement in the document.