USVI Public Records

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Government of the United States Virgin Islands Public Services Commission www.psc.vi.gov psc.info@psc.vi.gov P.O. Box 40 St. Thomas, VI 00804 1003 Estate Ross Suite 4, St. Thomas, VI, 00802 (340) 776-1291 P.O. Box 7360 Christiansted, VI 00823 Estate Carlton Suite 1 & 2 Frederiksted, St. Croix, VI, 00840 (340) 778-6010 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 004-24 Tuesday, February 13, 2024 Media Contact: Symra Hendrickson – Public Communication Coordinator (340) 776-1291 symra.hendrickson@psc.vi.gov PSC Regular Meeting The Virgin Islands Public Services Commission (PSC) held its Regular Meeting on Tuesday, February 13, 2024. The Commission discussed ongoing matters with regulated utilities: the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (WAPA or Authority), the Virgin Islands Waste Management Authority (WMA), and Broadband VI (BBVI)/Liberty. Today’s meeting immediately rose into Executive session where the Commission discussed personnel and legal matters. On Energy and Water Matters, BMR Donoe Solar threatened to discontinue providing solar power generation to WAPA if they did not meet their financial and contractual obligations to BMR. Currently, WAPA has reported paying BMR a sum of $ 304,430.11 toward their outstanding debt to BMR. The interest on past-due amounts remains outstanding. WAPA also discussed the status of the water quality issues on St. Croix. The Authority is still making every effort to address the situation by improving the water treatment process and placing additional hydrants throughout the island to increase water flow through frequent water flushing. The Authority is also trying to acquire a $1 billion Prudent Replacement grant from FEMA to replace the entire St. Croix water system. Department of Energy (DOE) Fellow, Solange Camacho, reported on WAPA’s Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) Systems. Her report intended to highlight why an AMI system that provides real- time data and control over energy usage is essential for the U.S. Virgin Islands (U.S.V.I.) to function in today’s modern world. WAPA is currently working on a plan to repair its current AMI systems to improve its quality of service and billing issues. The Public Services Commission is not funded through appropriations of the Legislature but through assessments of its regulated utilities. In November 2023, WMA filed a Petition for Reconsideration of Annual Assessment Fees. In the PSC’s December meeting, WMA was advised by the Commission to provide a supplemental filing based on the subpoena from the PSC, and a supplemental briefing for the second Petition for Reconsideration. Today that Petition went before the Commission for discussion, and it was unanimously denied due to failure to provide sufficient documentation to support their case. The final agenda items addressed Liberty. Liberty’s team went before the Commission to testify on the status of the migration process. Since Liberty acquired AT&T’s infrastructure, a migration and upgrade process was required to update their operating systems. This migration process has had its challenges and has caused a lot of customer complaints including dropped calls, number portability concerns, and overall quality of service. The PSC staff held a meeting with Liberty on January 17, 2024, to discuss these matters and their plan of action to address all issues. Liberty plans to have the migration process completed by the end of March 2024 and its officials stated that the service “issues should disappear” upon completion. All five Commissioners and Ex-officio members, Senator Marise James and Senator Carla Joseph attended the meeting. Learn more about the VIPSC matters and efforts by visiting the Facebook page and website – www.psc.vi.gov # # #