The Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (“WAPA” or “Authority”) has appointed Director of Transmission & Distribution (T&D) Ashley Bryan to serve as Interim Chief Operating Officer - Electric for the Authority.
Ms. Bryan, a Virgin Islands native, graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida in 2011 and has accumulated extensive experience in the energy industry over the last 12 years. Beginning her career as an Associate Electrical Engineer at the Wind Turbine and Energy Cables in Tampa, Florida, Ms. Bryan quickly rose to Project Engineer, responsible for coordinating engineering and field activities on current projects and analyzing projects to optimize cost savings and ensure material specification and lead times remained clearly defined.
Ms. Bryan went on to work as an Engineer III for the URS Corporation, managing an as-built ETAP Impedance model for the Department of Defense and composing technical modeling specification for contractors to adhere to which helped provide the necessary design and operation intelligence and electrical network situational awareness solutions to meet the needs of department in real-time.
Upon returning to the USVI, Ms. Bryan joined the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority as an Electrical Engineer I and moved up the ranks to her role as Director of T&D. Her knowledge of the Authority’s electrical operations is quite comprehensive. Ms. Bryan composed and implemented the current standard operating procedures for the T&D Division at the Authority and developed a 5-year capital plan to facilitate T&D System maintenance, operations, and growth. In her capacity as Director, she successfully procured over $2.75M in grant funding for the first EV’s and Hybrid Bucket Trucks in the Authority’s history. A Certified Utility Safety Professional, Ms. Bryan has successfully procured over $1M in grant funding focused on T&D employee training and development and introduced the first Power Lineman Training and Development Program.
Ms. Bryan is currently a member of the American Public Power Association’s (APPA) Safety Manual Review Task Force (SMRT) representing the Authority and region 10 on the committee. She is also a member of APPA’s RP3 Committee Reviews which oversees APPA utilities policies, procedures and finances and grades utilities based on Operational Excellence. Among her many goals for the Authority, Ms. Bryan hopes to get WAPA ranked as an RP3 utility.