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New CUC engine seen to arrive in Feb.
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Posted on Jan 27 2023
The shipment of a 10-megawatt unit generator that the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. has procured for approximately $7 million to replace the aging unit at CUC’s Power Plant 1 in Lower Base is expected to arrive on Saipan in mid-February.
However, it is faced with logistical challenges in that it is too heavy and big to be unloaded at the Saipan port and needs to be disassembled first, according to CUC executive director Gary P. Camacho yesterday.
Camacho
“It’s currently in Korea and should be leaving sometime this week,” Camacho said.
In March last year, Camacho said the engine unit was expected to arrive on Saipan in May 2022.
He said yesterday that the engine’s manufacturer, Man B&W, is fully responsible for the transportation or mobilization of the engine to CUC’s Power Plant 1.
He said Man B&W will install the engine and then have it operated, tested, then eventually turned over to CUC.
Under the contract, though, one Man B&W engineer will remain with the engine for the duration of one year to monitor its operation, he added.
Camacho said it is a turnkey project so all the responsibilities and requirements to do the transport and all the logistics and coordination involved rest with the manufacturer.
He said this engine originally came from Germany.
Camacho said the manufacturer determined that because of the engine’s weight and size, a larger portion of the unit will be disassembled so they can unload it at the Saipan port.
It will then be reassembled at Power Plant 1.
“They could not get it unloaded at the Saipan port as one unit. It’s too heavy. If I remember, it’s 76 tons,” the executive director said.
The final determination, he said, was to disassemble a large portion of the engine and transport that in different components and then have the engine manufacturer reassemble them at the power plant.
Camacho said the until will be brought in on one vessel.
He said the foundation at the Power Plant 1 for the engine unit has already been prepared, although there are going to be some slight modifications to get the unit in place.
