Two local activist groups have joined together and petitioned the Public Services Commission to reconsider its recent approval of power purchase and interconnection agreements between the V.I. Water and Power Authority and Alpine Energy Group, which proposes to build waste-to-energy facilities on St. Thomas and St. Croix.
The V.I. Ratepayers Association and V.I. Conservation Society filed the petition for reconsideration Nov. 5, according to their attorney, Emily Sabo. The 30-plus-page document brings to light what Sabo called "hidden costs" within the agreements that would increase the financial risk to WAPA and local ratepayers.
Sabo contended that in the power-purchase agreement, Alpine has capped its liability, so that it can "eliminate price risks and uncertainty for itself, so those costs are shifted to WAPA."
According to Sabo, the agreement enables the PSC to set rates high enough for WAPA to "recover the out-of-pocket costs incurred under the power purchase agreement."
WAPA Executive Director Hugo Hodge Jr. disputed the activists’ arguments Thursday, saying that the authority tried to build as many safeguards as possible into the agreements to keep the costs down for ratepayers.
"The bottom line is that every charge included in this power purchase agreement that could possibly bring us to a point where there’s additional cost to the ratepayer has an out clause, which allows for an evaluation to see what the effects would be for the authority," Hodge said. "So the risk in this deal is very much mitigated."
However, Hodge did acknowledge that the petition is evidence that the community needs to learn more about the project. He said WAPA plans to launch an informational campaign to clear up some of the "misinformation."
WAPA plans on filing a response to the petition with the PSC. Meanwhile, if the PSC doesn’t respond to the petition within 30 days, the organizations can turn to the courts, Sabo said.
When fully operational, the two waste-to-energy facilities are estimated to supply between 31 percent to 36 percent of St. Thomas electricity and 28 to 32 percent of St. Croix’s power.