Decision Support for U.S. Virgin Islands

NREL provides decision support, technical assistance, and resources to help the U.S. Virgin Islands address energy concerns such as high costs and low reliability.

Photo by Dan Olis, NREL

The U.S. Virgin Islands' energy infrastructure has historically faced challenges, particularly in the wake of devastating hurricanes such as Irma and Maria. These natural disasters have repeatedly exposed vulnerabilities in the grid, causing widespread power outages and highlighting the critical need for a resilient energy system.

NREL has long provided decision support and targeted technical assistance to the U.S. Virgin Islands with support from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Insular Affairs. This includes developing investment-grade wind resource datasets—supporting the development of the territory's first utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) plants—and conducting economic and power system modeling to inform utility planning and investment decisions.

Grid Modernization Roadmap

With the support of the DOE's Grid Deployment Office, NREL is collaborating with partners in the U.S. Virgin Islands on a roadmap to modernize the electrical grid. This initiative aims to provide a set of strategies and recommendations to improve grid reliability and affordability, diversify energy sources, and enhance resilience against natural disasters by leveraging more than $3 billion in federal investments from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funding.

Grid Modernization

Grid modernization involves updating the electricity grid to enhance its efficiency and reliability and support the future needs of consumers. It includes integrating advanced grid operations practices, such as dynamic line ratings and short-term load and resource forecasts; high shares of inverter-based resources; and grid-enhancing technologies such as smart meters and energy storage solutions. These improvements enable the grid to better manage diverse energy sources, respond more effectively to outages, and adapt to evolving energy demands, paving the way for a resilient, sustainable, and energy-abundant future.

NREL's grid research is aligned with the DOE's Grid Modernization Initiative as part of the Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium.

Learn more about grid modernization at NREL.

Through these efforts, NREL is supporting the U.S. Virgin Islands to:

• Increase reliability by addressing existing grid challenges and establishing a stable power supply
• Strengthen disaster resilience by upgrading infrastructure and systems for quick recovery from outages.

Input from stakeholders—including the Virgin Islands government, Public Services Commission, Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority, and residents—is key to shaping these efforts and ensuring that identified needs and solutions reflect the local context. The DOE and NREL team plan to host community and stakeholder roundtables to gather input in 2025.

This grid modernization roadmap—including stakeholder input—aims to guide investments and support efforts to improve grid reliability, diversify energy sources, increase affordability, and enhance resilience against natural disasters. This technical assistance effort will continue through 2025 and includes:

• Assessments of current infrastructure to pinpoint critical upgrades
• Evaluations of strategic investments to enhance grid performance and resilience
• Integration of best practices and the latest advancements in grid management technology.

Publications

U.S. Virgin Islands Energy Baseline Report, NREL Technical Report (2024)

U.S. Virgin Islands: Facing Challenges Head-On, NREL Fact Sheet (2024)

Energy Snapshot—U.S. Virgin Islands, NREL Fact Sheet (2020)

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