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Aggreko contract to be extended in $1.6M deal
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Posted on Mar 22 2022
Commonwealth Utilities Corp. executive director Gary P. Camacho during an interview yesterday in his office. (Leigh Gases)
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. will extend again its temporary power supply agreement with portable generator supplier Aggreko next month at a cost of $1.6 million.
CUC executive director Gary P. Camacho said yesterday that the extension is needed because a new power engine that CUC had purchased will come in from Germany sometime in May this year to replace the old one at Power Plant 1. The new engine will produce 10 megawatts of power.
Aggreko “will continue to be here throughout the arrival, installation, and commencement of the new engine,” Camacho said. Also, one engineer will be here the following year to monitor the new engine.
Aggreko was hired to provide a temporary electric power supply while CUC’s engines are down for overhaul and repair.
In a meeting last year, it was learned that on average, Saipan needs 33MW of power supply. The peak load is 37MW. Presently, the plant is restricted to 36MW, with 8MW of reserve and this includes 12MW of power provided by Aggreko.
Furthermore, Aggreko already completed overhaul of Engine 7 last September. However, there is more work that needs to be done on engines 1 and 3.
According to Camacho, a lot of the work has been deferred over the years. Last year, new funding allowed CUC to coordinate with the different contractors working on rehabilitating the old engines. The funding for this new extension came from the governor’s office.
The original contract with Aggreko was that it would provide temporary power on Saipan for 90 days, while CUC’s generator engines are being overhauled and repaired. That contract was first extended in January 2020 for another 90 days, and then twice extended again. Early last year, CUC extended its power supply deal with Aggreko to September.
Camacho assures that that they will “try to finish as quick[ly] as we can and there’s now a lot of activity.”
LEIGH GASES
leigh_gases@saipantribune.com
Reporter
