Senate PUTC chair backs buried power lines

Sen. Vinnie F. Sablan (Ind-Saipan) supports the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s proposal to bury the power system in key areas on Saipan and Tinian as part of CUC’s resiliency plans after Super Typhoon Yutu.

Sablan, who chairs the Senate Committee on Public Utilities, Transportation, and Communication, said an underground power system is something that is proactive.

“If we start being proactive as opposed to reactive, I think we can save a lot of money,” he said after CUC’s board meeting last Thursday that he attended.

CUC executive director Gary P. Camacho discussed the proposal at the recent Saipan Chamber of Commerce general membership meeting.

He said the Federal Emergency Management Agency is privy to the proposal.

Camacho said they believe that, by securing the power system underground, CUC would be able to quickly re-energize critical areas.

Sablan also expressed the need for CUC and the CNMI government to comply with the federal court-mandated stipulated orders for CUC projects.

“We need to ensure we have some progress in answering those orders,” he said.

On the restoration efforts after Yutu’s devastation, the senator is hats off to CUC, its staff and those off-island crews like linemen for making the restoration “very quick.”

“I think we’re almost 100 percent power,” said Sablan, citing news reports that CUC is looking at the end of this month to complete the restoration efforts.

He said one has to also acknowledge that Yutu is not the last storm that will hit the CNMI, so CUC will have to start looking into more effective utility services.

Sablan said the underground utilities project is going to be a long process and take a lot of funding “but we need to start to think about it and start moving toward it,” adding that CUC needs to provide consistent power, water, wastewater services.

The Senate will tentatively have its first PUTC committee meeting on Feb. 19.

“From there, we look at legislation. We’re trying to craft legislation that will improve the services and we can start having a more organized meeting with CUC,” he said.

Sablan underscored that it is not only the Legislature and CUC and other agencies that should know what’s going on, or what the plans are, but the community should also be kept in the loop “because we are all stakeholders. It’s the backbone of our economy.”

Sablan said he attended the CUC board meeting Thursday to see what their issues are. He said he is aware that CUC is facing a lot of issues and, as the PUTC chairman, he wants to make sure that he gets all the background information and gain more knowledge of what’s going on.

Sablan said it’s imperative for him as the PUTC chairman to keep an open channel with CUC, its management, the board, the staff as well.

Sablan was a CUC employee for 10 years. He started as a laboratory assistant in 2000. He eventually became a laboratory technician. He left CUC in 2012.

“Being a former CUC employee, I am thankful and honored to be here in my official capacity, to act as a conduit for CUC to the Legislature,” he said.