A rotation that was expected to begin at noon Wednesday was pushed back to 4 p.m. in the St. Thomas–St. John district as the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority awaited a fuel delivery from St. Croix — a delay officials said underscored how limited renewable resources on the island left the system without a buffer.

WAPA said in a midday release that it had activated all available diesel units to keep most feeders online until the shipment arrived. But with the LPG terminal offline and only about four megawatts of solar available on St. Thomas, the district faced what officials described as a roughly 30-megawatt shortfall. Communications Director Shanell Spencer told the Source Thursday that the gap reflected a long-standing structural problem: “We have all of our energy in one bucket on St. Thomas–St. John. We’re heavily reliant on shipping fuel, and when there’s a delay like this, there’s no cushion.”

Spencer contrasted that with St. Croix, where just over half of daytime power can come from solar and battery storage that’s able to carry the system past peak demand. “St. Croix has upwards of 40 megawatts from solar,” she said. “On St. Thomas, four megawatts is nothing in a situation like this.” The Donoe solar farm provides some daytime support, but without batteries it drops off immediately with cloud cover — offering no stability during a fuel delay. “Battery storage could give up to another four hours of power,” Spencer said. “That’s the kind of flexibility St. Croix has today.”

WAPA said the outage was shortened once it confirmed the fuel shipment was already on its way. Instead of a full daytime rotation, the Authority shifted to one-hour blocks beginning around 4 p.m., with Spencer stressing that the delay was not tied to payment or procurement issues but to transit timing and an aging plant that lacks alternative generation.

In its statement, WAPA placed Wednesday’s disruption within its broader push toward renewable projects, battery installations, and system modernization — work officials say is critical to reducing the frequency and severity of forced rotations. CEO Karl Knight said the day’s events highlighted why that transition cannot move slowly. “These renewable projects are not just environmental choices — they provide operational resilience. Unlike fuel shipments, sun and storage cannot be delayed.”

WAPA said customers would continue receiving updates through its website, social media, radio partners, and its Everbridge-based WAPA Alerts system.

For residents on St. Thomas and St. John, the shortened rotation may have softened the blow — but the episode once again revealed a system that depends heavily on fuel arriving on time, and a district still years behind St. Croix in the build-out of solar and storage. As Spencer put it, “Until we diversify, moments like this will continue to show how exposed the system is.”