Power emergency on Rota

Commonwealth Utilities Corp. executive director Gary P. Camacho gestures as he explains to CUC board directors their need for guidance to resolve Rota’s power situation problem during a board meeting last Friday. (Ferdie de la Torre)

Due to the electric power problem on Rota, the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. board of directors has declared an emergency situation for the island in order to establish a reserve power capacity.

After the board of directors discussed the power problem on Rota and upon receiving legal guidance from CUC legal counsel James Sirok, vice chair Weston Deleon Guerrero moved for the emergency declaration.

CUC board chair Miranda Villagomez Manglona approved the motion. Other board members—treasurer Matthew Holley, secretary Jovita Paulino, and acting Commonwealth Development Authority board chair Benjamin Petersburg—also approved.

Manglona in an interview said they have to do that declaration for reserve power in order for Rota CUC to connect with Rota Resort while they are in the process of fixing the power engine at Songsong Power Plant.

Manglona said several of their engines are not working so they went ahead and tried to procure a new engine to avoid rolling blackouts.

“We don’t want Rota to be powerless,” the chair pointed out.

She said another motion has to be placed where the board members will decide if they approve the rates that Rota Resort will be charging for CUC to temporary connect with them.

“And I hope that we can work with the Rota Resort in trying to come to a comfortable price where we can connect to them,” Manglona said.

After the board approved the emergency declaration the directors had a recess then held an executive session as CUC was negotiating with the Rota Resort’s price.

“We will try to do that today as soon as we can get the numbers,” said Manglona, referring to negotiation for connection with Rota Resort.

Sen. Paul A. Manglona (Ind-Rota) last week wrote a letter to CUC executive director Gary P. Camacho, requesting to update the Rota Legislative Delegation about the conditions of the island’s six generators.

Manglona expressed alarm that of the six generators, the island is only working with only one generator and that recently there was an island-wide power outage that lasted for four hours.

Camacho explained to the board the power situation on Rota and for the need to temporarily connect with Rota Resort while repair on the power engine is ongoing.

CUC has only one power plant on Rota. Two brand-new Cummins engines were procured in 2011, bringing to six engines, including a backup unit.

In an interview, Camacho said as reported by Rota CUC resident director last Jan. 18, there was problem on the Mitsui power engine unit.

Camacho said the problem was not only the engine itself but on the generator side that burned a couple of coils.

Camacho said the Mitsui engine is very old at 35 years old.

He said they sent their folks down there, working and dealing with that particular unit.

The executive director said they sent another group of people—engineers and electricians—to work with the linemen to see what they can do after they get approval from Rota Resort to identify some sort of immediate reserve capacity.

Camacho said Rota Resort will be the most capable.

He said on Rota, there is an issue with their crane at the port and obviously bringing a generator has its issues and dilemma at this particular junction.

“But Rota Resort is obviously there and we are going to try to negotiate now, if the board approves whatever the rate we need to come up with,” he said.

Camacho said once that’s done and approved by the board, then they can proceed with the making the necessary connection with Rota Resort.

He said it is only a connection with Rota Resort and not necessarily usage.

“You understand that as long as the engine is running and that’s fine, we will be using ours as the primary. In times that the engine needs to be maintained and shutdown or maintenance or inspection that’s when we will use and avail to Rota Resort,” Camacho said.

Camaco disclosed that they do have a brand-new replacement engine but that unit will be ready to provide power five to eight months.

He said Mitsui power engine is under repair but that is anticipated to be ready for another month so they got to deal with the situation now.

Camacho said they want to ensure that they will be providing reliable power reserve capacity.

“That’s what the emergency for as a reserve capacity,” he pointed out.

He said Rota’s peak load is 1.5 to 1.6 megawatts and that CUC is meeting the demand.

He said the current unit that is running now is 2 megawatts.

Camacho said they need a reserve unit so if any unit needs maintenance or any unit needs to be shut down for a variety of reasons, in order to do so, they have the capability and will not affect to the community.

He said the plan is to purchase a unit with 2 megawatts as they don’t want to get too large engine.

Camacho said a 2-megawatt engine should be sufficient to add and hopefully be able to have the capacity to encourage any new customers to come in.

Camacho said they’re hoping to buy one that’s worth between $200,000 and $300,000.

He said they have the funding to purchase one.

“The issue is the most immediate availability. We already have the new unit coming, but I said it’s five to eight months. So, we need something now,” he said.

He said one engine unit that is coming is two megawatts.

“We are hoping that some sort of connection would be approved and negotiated with the Rota Resort on a cash basis and then we also like to have an independent unit that will be our main secondary reserve capacity,” Camacho said.

Camacho said the Mitsui engine is currently under repair.

He said the new engine to be purchased will serve in a secondary reserve capacity.