WAPA to Public Regulators: Storm Recovery Costs Deepened Financial Crisis

The newly appointed Water and Power Authority chief executive officer, Karl Knight, made his first appearance before the Public Services Commission Tuesday on St. Thomas.

Knight testified about the utility’s status in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Ernesto, and joined by other top WAPA officials, he fielded questions about customer billing problems and efforts to solve problems affecting power generation. Questions and answers bounced between testifiers and regulators for close to two hours. Knight said as of Tuesday there were two customers in the territory still living with storm-caused power outages. Linemen and repair crews dealt with damaged utility poles, but the WAPA chief said pole fires that happened after the storm passed caused most of the problems.

Ernesto’s rains and winds caused roughly $480,000 in damages, he said. That assessment at the start of peak hurricane season came as WAPA struggles with its latest financial crisis. “Financially, we are cash strapped,” said Knight. Bad news for WAPA, but also bad news for the PSC. As the session began around 10 a.m., Commission Chairman Pedro Williams declared his agency faced a similar plight.