Two weeks after the V.I. Water and Power Authority governing board voted to revoke the utility’s contract with liquid petroleum gas supplier Empire Gas Company, WAPA chief executive Karl Knight told board members Thursday that the utility entered into a temporary supply contract with the Puerto Rico-based Empire while the utility reissues a request for proposals.
The board narrowly approved the initial contract with Empire in July, but the award was criticized after it became known that WAPA gave up on the RFP process and negotiated directly with Empire. Board members ultimately voted to rescind the contract during an emergency meeting earlier this month and authorized Knight to find a temporary supplier. On Thursday, he reported that the utility is sticking with Empire for the next six months.
“They provided a fairly decent rate of fifty-one and a half cents, which is a reduction from what we’re currently paying on our current fuel contract, and so we look forward to that new partnership — albeit on a temporary basis,” he said. “But it does mark the transition from what has been a more exclusive arrangement for the last upwards of a decade.”
During his report to board members, Knight also noted that the utility weathered the effects of Hurricane Erin and did a “fairly good job” restoring power to the territory.
“Most of our issues, of course, it’s just the wind,” he said. “It’s not the rain, it’s really the lightning strikes as well as the wind blowing debris and trees in the lines.”
Knight also addressed a recent visit from Acting U.S. Interior Department Assistant Secretary William Hague, who toured the Richmond power plant this month.
“He came just in time to see our sargassum-covered bay,” Knight quipped, “and to get a first-hand understanding of why that is a challenge — why at one point, it rose to the level of a national disaster declaration — and the fact that it does threaten the ability to produce potable drinking water on the island of St. Croix.”
The report came after board members approved a full slate of federally-funded resiliency contracts, including a three-year, $2,322,500 award to Stanley Consultants to manage waterline replacement projects on St. Croix, St. John, and St. Thomas, and a $4,485,000 addition to the utility’s contract with Barkley Technologies to harden secondary distribution infrastructure. The board approved a $7,627,473 contract with Haugland VI to underground electric infrastructure in Christiansted as well as two no-cost extensions to lines of credit with FirstBank and Banco Popular.
“The benefits for this are that the authority has a weak cash position currently and is not in a position to repay all of these facilities in full at this time,” WAPA chief financial officer Lorraine Kelly said. “And it is in our best interest that the expiry of these facilities be extended as proposed and offered by the bank.”
St. Croix Source
Local news
