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CUC plans to install fuel-saver system
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Posted on Oct 06 2005
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. is entertaining a proposal from a U.S.-based company to install a “catalyst system” in the power plant, which is believed to reduce power consumption by 10 percent.
CUC executive director Lorraine A. Babauta and board chair Francisco Q. Guerrero disclosed the plan during yesterday’s press briefing at the Multi-Purpose Center in Susupe.
They said the proposal came from a certain Kevin Terry from Utah.
According to them, Terry will visit the CUC power plant in Lower Base and install the fuel-saving equipment in one of the engines.
“It’s a pilot project. If it’s working, then we’d do it for all other engines,” said Guerrero.
Babauta said the initial visit and estimate would be at no cost to CUC. She said CUC does not know yet the actual cost of the project.
The CUC said that it consumes 3 million gallons of fuel every month, which translates to about $6 million.
Last May, the CUC signed a two-year fuel supply contract with Mobil Marianas amounting to $120 million. But this contract cost is subject to change depending on the price of fuel in the global market.
“It will increase if the price of fuel continues to increase,” said Babauta in an earlier interview.
The $120-million contract was based on the May 2005 fuel price.
Meantime, CUC said yesterday that as of Sept. 30, 2005, the government paid a total of $14 million for utilities, which is $9 million in excess of the annual appropriation.
CUC said that the government is paid up through March 2006.
This figure is on top of the recent “emergency” reprogramming of funds for CUC totaling $9 million. The reprogrammed funds include $5.1 million from local funds, $2.7 from federal funds, and some $1 million from the Marianas Public Lands Authority.
The MPLA is also expected to make a prepayment of $300,000 to $500,000 to CUC for utilities.
