June 30, 2023 9:03 am Published by ODR Leave your thoughts Contact online >>
June 30, 2023 9:03 am Published by ODR Leave your thoughts
Office of Disaster RecoveryVirgin Islands Public Finance Authority5033 Kongens Gade, Government HillSt. Thomas, VI 00802
Phone:(340)202-1221Fax:(340) 714-1636
Office of Disaster RecoveryVirgin Islands Public Finance Authority402 Strand StreetFrederiksted, St. Croix, VI 00840
Phone:(340)202-1221Fax:(340) 773-0551
WAPA CEO Karl Knight TS Ernesto Restoration Update on August 15, 2024, at 5:00pm AST.
Video: https://youtu /P2TmRYu9yfE
U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS – The Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority ("WAPA" or "Authority") would like to provide the public with an update on its goal to introduce microgrids to the Territory, as the Authority continues to prioritize grid reliability and redundancy to reduce outages for its customers.
Microgrids are a small-scale power grid that receives and/or produces power from renewable energy sources, energy storage devices, and other power generation units, such as the main power plant. Among the range of benefits, microgrids will enhance the resilience of the Authority''s local energy supply by providing backup power during grid failures, such as loss of generation at the Richmond power plant on St. Croix or the Randolph Harley power plant on St. Thomas or outages caused by vehicle accidents or overgrown trees. Further, microgrids can also operate independently and continue supplying electricity to critical areas—for instance hospitals during a tropical storm—improving reliability and reducing service disruptions.
On St. John, where the Authority intends to introduce its first of three microgrids in the Territory, a feasibility study began earlier this year in February. Taking the lead on the first step of this project, the Authority''s System Planning department is collaborating with contractors EE Plus, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Sargent & Lundy to assess the current microgrid project proposal for St. John. The project is expected to include 4 megawatts of renewable solar generation, an emergency generation unit and corresponding battery energy storage system (BESS).
"The team and I are diligently at work on these microgrid projects for the Territory," stated Marquis McGregor, Electrical Engineer III within the System and Planning Department at the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority. "We are most excited about the potential and possibilities as these projects come to a close with what we''ll be able to do with BESS as well as the alternative energy resources," added McGregor.
Upon completion of the feasibility studies, findings will be submitted to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for review and approval, followed by design, procurement and construction. The current microgrid project slated for St. John will be funded 90% through FEMA with a 10% local match.
On St. Thomas and St. Croix, project proposals are underway, and information will be forthcoming, as the Authority implements steps towards improved energy efficiency, reduced transmission losses, integration of renewable energy sources, and enhanced grid resilience.
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How best to go about rebuilding is the multi-billion dollar question hanging over the US Virgin Islands as it picks itself up from massive destruction wrought by the recent hurricanes.
Hurricanes Irma and Maria took a heavy toll on the islands'' electric grids. Irma left St. Thomas and St. John without electricity when it made landfall early morning September 20. Two weeks later, Maria devastated St. Croix before moving on and doing the same in Puerto Rico.
Now a strong contingent of government and private sector leaders see microgrid opportunities arising out of the devastation — a chance to harness renewable energy resources in concert with the latest in distributed energy technologies to create a more robust and resilient grid.
The Virgin Islands estimates $5.5 billion is needed to repair and rebuild its infrastructure in the wake of the two successive Category 5 hurricanes, a historically unprecedented occurrence. That includes reconstructing the electric grid as well as schools, hospitals and government facilities. The figure also includes replacing revenue shortfalls.
The total is likely to increase as the extent of the damages and recovery costs become clearer, according to an estimate Virgin Islands'' Governor Kenneth Mapp submitted to U.S. congressional leaders on October 12.
Both the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico rate poorly in terms of operational performance and fiscal health, but the Virgin Islands'' Water and Power Authority (WAPA) was arguably in somewhat better shape than the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), which went bankrupt in July before the hurricanes struck. In any case, both island territories saw the collapse of utility electricity and electricity grid-dependent water services by the time Irma and Maria moved on.
According to an Oct. 1 Infrastructure Security and Energy Restoration update from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), WAPA had restored grid services to approximately 15 percent of customers on St. Thomas and 10 percent of those on St. Croix. That included critical facilities, such as airports and hospitals, compared to only five percent of PREPA customers at the time in Puerto Rico.
By November 20 — two months after the storms — massive outages remained. Power was restored to just over one third of Virgin Island electric customers. Still without power were 52.8 percent of customers on St. Thomas, 76.1 percent on St. Croix, and 60 percent on St. John, according to the DOE.
An island microgrid already in operation offered perspective on how such systems fare in extreme weather. Working with project partners, Texas-based Ideal Power deployed an off-grid solar-plus-storage microgrid that provides electrical power to a commercial facility on St. Croix. Like many such facilities in the Virgin Islands and across the Caribbean, the commercial facility has never been connected to the utility grid, instead relying on diesel power generation 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Ideal''s John Merritt told Microgrid Knowledge.
Learn more about microgrid opportunities in storm rebuilding. Attend Microgrid 2018.
Ideal''s six Stabiliti 30C3 multi-port power conversion systems integrate solar photovoltaic (PV) and lithium ion battery energy storage with the facility''s preexisting diesel generators.
"Hurricane Maria''s high winds damaged the commercial facility''s rooftop solar panels. However, the batteries, control systems, generators and Ideal Power''s converters are in good shape," said Merritt, Ideal Power''s director of applications engineering. "We are working with our partners to repurpose on-site assets, although the solar PV array is idle at the moment."
The site will continue to offset fuel use by pairing the batteries with diesel generation, he continued. "Batteries without solar can still reduce fuel use and generator run-times. With clever load management, we should be able to run the facility on batteries alone."
In the morning, control systems automatically start the generators and charge the batteries, enabling them to support late afternoon and nighttime loads, Merritt said.
Ideal has received "quite a few inquiries from companies wanting us to assist with island recovery efforts," he added. "We''re looking forward to more opportunities to serve businesses with robust and timely modular microgrid solutions,which in addition to reducing power consumption and electricity costs are better for the environment."
"It''s not that difficult to get up to those numbers. We''re working in partnership with 13 islands at present to develop large-scale solar, wind and geothermal energy resources, and of course battery storage," said Christopher Burgess, RMI Islands energy program director.
RMI has completed two national energy transition strategies – one on St. Lucia and one for St. Vincent and the Grenadines. These lay out a path for the island nations to transition from reliance on diesel power generation to decentralized renewable energy systems that make use of mixes of locally available and appropriate resources.
"Just adding intelligent battery energy storage reduces the cost and raises the efficiency of power generation. Adding renewables makes even more sense," Burgess said.
St. Lucia has 70 MW of renewables up and running, and project partners are looking at installing a battery-based energy storage system with 10 MWh of energy capacity. On St. Vincent, where peak loads average around 25 MW, project partners are considering deploying a 5 MWh battery storage solution to augment spinning reserve capacity, Burgess said.
Investing in decentralized renewables, energy storage systems and microgrids conveys multiple benefits: They reduce the cost of producing and distributing electricity and enhance grid reliability. They add resiliency and reduce or even eliminate the long-term costs to human and environmental health and quality of life associated with diesel fuel generation. Finally, they provide a boost to local employment and economies, according to Burgess and RMI.
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