OREANDA-NEWS. The US Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (Wapa) has secured a key permit necessary to move forward with a mid-July commissioning of a St Croix power plant conversion project that will use propane as a feedstock.

Wapa said it filed for the marine work permit with the Army Corps of Engineers on St Croix in December 2013. But a permit necessary to move forward on a sister project at St Thomas is still pending.

The marine work needed to bring online the Estate Richmond power plant at St Croix should be completed in the next 30-45 days, Wapa executive director Hugo Hodge said.

The marine loading arm that was installed at the Estate Richmond's plant fuel dock will be tested in the following weeks.

"A nitrogen generator will arrive this week and in June, we will commence hydro testing and nitrogen purging of the various systems. The control room will be energized on 1 June and the automation systems will be loaded and tested in June as well," Wapa chief operating officer Gregory Rhymer said.

Wapa expects an LGC carrying propane will arrive at the US Virgin Islands in the first days of July. The vessel, originally commissioned for the St Thomas power plant, will be placed in a temporary anchoring site pending the second Army Corps of Engineers permit.