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CUC extending Aggreko contract anew
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. is extending for one year its contract with power provider Aggreko, according to acting CUC executive director Betty G. Terlaje.
Terlaje said in an interview Friday that the renewal will be done by the end of the week and that the extension is for one year.
“We’re still talking legality for the change order but it looks good for CUC,” she said.
Terlaje said the board had approved the first time the renewal came up, so this is just a change order to extend the contract under the same emergency declaration.
She said Aggreko is needed as the new power engine No. 4 at Power Plant 1 in Lower Base is still not up.
“There were some hiccups with engine No. 4. It was difficult to bring in. It was stranded in Singapore or Korea,” she said.
Terlaje said there is a change order for the engine manufacturer, Man B&W Diesel, that’s being prepared because there’s some work that need to be done with the crane on Saipan for the engine.
Betty G. Terlaje
Last March, then-acting CUC executive director Dallas M. Peavey Jr. said the new power engine will take several months to install and, if they still need Aggreko to ensure there is enough power for Saipan’s use, then they will have to extend that contract again so they will have sufficient power supply capacity.
The power purchase agreement with Aggreko started in 2019, with CUC paying Aggreko a fixed monthly cost of $302,400, according to the transition report to CUC.
The original contract with Aggreko was to provide temporary power for 90 days while CUC’s generator engines are being overhauled and repaired. The contract was then extended several times.
