Business View Caribbean | August 2019

45 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN AUGUST 2019 stronger, so it will survive another storm. Our automated meters weren’t really damaged but they had no network to communicate through. That made the resumption of billing very difficult; we had to go back to a completely manual system, so that presented some delays. “The last piece to the mitigation work – we’re installing two, four-megawatt emergency generators in St. John, because it is so remote, so they wouldn’t have to rely on power from St. Thomas. It took 45 days to rebuild the overhead transmission lines in St. Thomas that service the sub-sea cables to St. John, so St. John was without power for 45 days after Irma.” BVC: How are you accessing funding for the projects? Kupfer: “We’re working on an overall transformation plan to take advantage of available federal funding. It’s a three-part program: the first is Improved Resiliency, which relates to those mitigation projects. The second leg is Improved pictured WAPA’s Power Town Presentation: An interactive model that educates on the importance of power line safety