No LEAC Increase as WAPA’s Deferred Costs Skyrocket

At a Public Services Commission meeting where its rates were under discussion, V.I. Water and Power Authority officials failed to show up Tuesday, forcing the PSC to issue a subpoena.

PSC members questioned who would represent the authority now, as its chief executive officer has resigned.

Even without a representative from WAPA, the commission spent much of its meeting discussing WAPA’s proposed LEAC rate and what its deferred fuel costs meant to its murky financial situation.

The idea that a solar farm could sell its power directly to commercial customers, bypassing WAPA, was thrown into the middle of that discussion.

Bruce Levy, owner of BMR Donoe Solar and Spanish Town Solar Farms, returned to the commission again to plead for payment from WAPA for the electricity his farms were producing. He said, “The free supply of solar can’t go on forever.”