WAPA: How We Will Achieve a Standard of Stability
“When you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.” Ask the opposition for their plan.
Affordable and Reliable Energy: Resolving the WAPA Issue
The ongoing operational and financial crisis within the Water and Power Authority (WAPA) is the single greatest threat to the USVI’s economic survival. With inflation spiking—driven largely by a staggering increase in utility and housing costs—resolving this issue is an absolute emergency.
We must move past the era of managing the gap by deferring maintenance and losing money on every barrel of oil.
- Federal Debt Elimination via Prudent Replacement: We will aggressively lobby and coordinate with the federal government to maximize the impact of FEMA’s Prudent Replacement Program. By securing federal grants to completely cover the costs of replacing failing, outdated infrastructure with modern, climate-resilient systems, we can prevent WAPA from taking on new, high-interest commercial debt.
- Operational Efficiency and Fuel Cost Reduction: By fast-tracking the transition to large-scale solar farms, Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), and localized island micro-grids (such as the St. John Micro-grid Project), we will drastically reduce fuel costs. The substantial savings from burning less expensive oil will be directly reinvested in the utility’s operational reserves.
- A Complete Forensic Financial Audit: We will mandate a comprehensive, transparent audit of WAPA’s accounts to eliminate waste, fraudulent billing practices, and administrative bloat. This ensures that every dollar entering the utility is spent on grid stability, customer service, and workforce retention.
- “Solar for All” & Community Micro-grids: This federally funded effort installs solar-plus-storage systems in low-income households and critical community hubs. It provides decentralized, storm-resilient power where it is needed most, minimizing transmission losses and lowering the carbon footprint.
- Virtual Power Plants (VPP): Through the Virgin Islands Battery Energy Storage (VIBES) program, WAPA can network individual, customer-owned home batteries. This creates a decentralized “Virtual Power Plant” that feeds clean energy back into the grid to prevent blackouts, reducing the need to run inefficient, oil-burning generators.
- Securing and Valuing Our Human Resources: “A power plant is only as reliable as the linemen, engineers, operators, and administrative staff who maintain it.”
For too long, WAPA employees have been expected to perform hazardous, essential work during crises while their compensation remains stagnant under expired or underfunded agreements. The Donastorg-Nelson administration will establish a statutory firewall within WAPA’s budget dedicated exclusively to workforce stabilization.
- Implementing the 2% Collective Bargaining Guarantee
- Once the utility’s financial health is restored through fuel savings and federal debt mitigation, those realized savings will be structurally locked in to support the workforce:
- Binding Contractual Guarantees: We will formalize and honor a mandatory 2% salary increase every two (2) years across all existing and respective union contract agreements representing WAPA personnel.
- Funding the Raises via Structural Savings: This raise schedule will not be funded by raising consumer utility rates or increasing the territory’s debt. Instead, it will be directly sustained by the lower operational costs achieved through our green energy transition and the elimination of expensive emergency fuel purchases.
- Preventing Workforce Attrition: Offering a reliable, predictable cost-of-living adjustment ensures the USVI can retain its highly trained local technicians, line workers, and engineers. Keeping our local experts home prevents the incredibly expensive practice of flying in off-island emergency contractors whenever the grid encounters a routine mechanical or electrical
fault.
By making the utility whole, transparent, and operationally efficient, we secure the financial freedom to treat our workforce with the dignity they deserve—ensuring a reliable grid for our community and a stable future for our workers.
No One Left Behind: The Donastorg/Nelson Commitment
