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.
PSC Accounts Maintenance Manager Brenda Connor echoed that concern. At Tuesday’s meeting, Connor said failure to collect outstanding assessments from regulated entities like WAPA would cause financial hardship.
The utility owes the Public Services Commission $1,316,314.14. “When can we expect a check from WAPA?” Williams asked.
“We are currently biting a very hard bullet in order to avoid rising costs for our customers,” Knight said. “We’re just not in a position to do so, but I think we can approach (the Government of the Virgin Islands) with a plan of action.”
WAPA customers are already paying high prices, but officials said collected revenues were not enough to meet the utility’s costs. “Currently, the customers are not covering WAPA’s finances, but the rates right now are as high as they can go without harming the economy,” Knight said.
