WAPA reports progress on FEMA‑funded plant replacements, undergrounding, composite poles and microgrids; warns work remains

The Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (WAPA) presented an extensive status update on federally funded recovery, modernization and resilience projects, telling the Committee on Disaster Recovery, Infrastructure and Planning that while major investments are in place, work remains on project execution, vendor payments and procurement.

Joel Webster, WAPA’s director of grants management, said the authority has obligated more than $4.5 billion from federal sources for recovery and resilience work and has expended roughly $892 million to date. He described three broad lines of work: hardening the transmission and distribution system (composite poles and undergrounding), modernization (advanced metering and battery energy storage systems) and prudent replacement of generation equipment at the Randolph Harley (St. Thomas) and Richmond (St. Croix) power plants.

Composite poles and undergrounding: WAPA reported high completion percentages for the territory’s composite‑pole program — about 96% complete on St. Croix, 94% on St. Thomas (Feeder 13 bypass at 80%) and roughly 87% on St. John — with remaining work tied to final construction and local conditions. Major undergrounding projects for key feeders are in active construction: Feeders 5A on St. Thomas (serving the Randolph Harley plant, Lindbergh Bay and the airport) is about 75% complete; on St. Croix, undergrounding along Feeders 8B and 9B (Hannah’s Rest and Queen Mary Highway) is also roughly 75% complete. WAPA said additional undergrounding work at container port, Golden Grove and Midland on St. Croix and cruise‑area work on St. John are nearing completion.

Microgrids and battery energy storage systems (BESS): WAPA outlined microgrid plans that pair solar PV with battery storage to supply critical load zones independently during plant outages. On St. Croix, the Western microgrid is planned as an 18 MW solar PV installation with a 20 MWh battery system. On St. Thomas, the Bovoni and Fortuna microgrids will be designed to about 15 MW of generation paired with 30 MWh of storage. St. John projects include a Cruise Bay BESS (4 MW / 12 MWh), Frank Bay emergency generation (two 5 MW diesel gensets) and a Coral Bay BESS (3 MW / 12 MWh) at a 13.8 kV switching station; WAPA said Coral Bay design was at about 90% and construction for these St. John projects is expected to start in 2026.

Generation replacements and procurement: WAPA said FEMA and ODR have obligated funding for "prudent replacement" at Randolph Harley ($206.3 million award) and Richmond ($674.2 million award). The authority described the careful procurement process: a progressive design‑build with a guaranteed maximum price structure is under evaluation; an RFP produced three respondents and evaluation was underway. WAPA said some units are marked for removal and replacement (for example, the age and parts availability for turbines dating from the 1970s–1980s justify full replacement), while other nearby older units may be removed because of site conflicts with replacements.

Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and modernization: WAPA is progressing with an AMI rollout to install smart meters and communications networks; the project has vendor surveys, business workshops and meter designs approved and is awaiting federal environmental and historic preservation (EHP) clearance before field deployment. WAPA said AMI will improve outage detection, billing accuracy and customer information.

Procurement, vendor payments and claims: WAPA told the committee that procurement, invoice documentation and federal compliance remain heavy lifts for older projects. The authority said it is reconciling older vendor invoices and has implemented "pencil‑copy" invoicing and vendor training to speed payment. On contract accountability, the committee raised the Wartsila contract (gensets installed on St. Thomas) and ongoing operational issues; WAPA responded that legal and contract remedies, including evaluation of damages and working with external counsel, were in progress.

Community impact and next steps: WAPA stressed these projects are designed to shorten restoration times after storms and to enable more renewable integration; the authority also said it is working to keep procurement documentation current so federal reimbursements flow and vendors are paid. WAPA committed to provide the committee additional detail on vendor obligations, specific completion dates for undergrounding segments, transformer inventories and other line‑by‑line project metrics requested by senators. The committee scheduled a committee‑of‑the‑whole session to continue oversight of WAPA’s operations and recovery projects.