Like Cash, Key Hardware Also Eludes WAPA

Money isn’t the only thing in short supply at the Water and Power Authority, WAPA officials said at a meeting of its governing board Thursday. While the embattled utility’s financial concerns have been well publicized, WAPA also faces dramatic challenges in obtaining key hardware vital to power generation and grid stability.

Gov. Albert Bryan Jr.’s surprise declaration of emergency to address WAPA’s staggering cash shortfall grabbed the public’s attention Tuesday, eliciting raised eyebrows from lawmakers and customers. But it was a national — perhaps global — scarcity of suitable power transformers that hobbled the authority’s quest to prevent unplanned power outages, utility officials explained.

In February 2022, WAPA planned to take St. Thomas’ vital Donald C. Francois substation offline and replace its old air-insulated system with a new, more reliable, gas-insulated system. The $10 million project, fully funded by federal allotments, was supposed to be completed in two months, eliminating costly and dangerous repairs with a safer, smaller system that required minimal maintenance over its 40-year lifespan.

De-energizing the Francois substation meant its duties needed to be picked up by the East End substation. These substations use transformers to convert electrical power to different voltages — from the power station level to a level for home and business use. The transformer at the East End substation, D-T1, isn’t up to the task, having been heavily damaged in the 2017 hurricanes, said Chavante Marsh, WAPA’s director of project management.