Bright holidays assured—CUC

The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. yesterday assured that there would be no power interruption in the CNMI, as residents and visitors celebrate the holidays beginning today, Christmas eve.

CUC’s acting executive director, Sohale Samari, said the utility firm’s power plants now have enough fuel stock that will last for days.

“We have enough fuel to last us through the Christmas holiday,” Samari said.

He disclosed on Thursday that the CUC received another $500,000 from the CNMI government, in addition to the same amount of subsidy given by the Finance Department to the beleaguered utility firm last Tuesday.

He said the government pledged another $500,000 on Tuesday next week. However, the $1 million pledged by the government for the following week appear uncertain.

“The other $1 million the following week has to do with the fuel tanker. Basically, the government has told us that it will deal with the issue of the fuel tanker when the fuel tanker arrives. Right now, all we’re going to get from the government is the $500,000 that we got today [yesterday] and the $500,000 that we’re going to get next week,” Samari said Thursday.

Yesterday, Samari said communications between the CUC and the CNMI government continue, hinting that there might be a “major development” by Tuesday or Wednesday next week. He did not disclose what this possible development might be.

The CUC had to resort to power load shedding on Saipan on Tuesday and Wednesday as fuel reserves for Saipan’s power plants were running out. When the CUC announced the load shedding on Tuesday, it said it could not pay for the scheduled fuel deliveries on that day.

The CUC expected fuel at Power Plant 1 and 4 to run out late this week had it not been for the CNMI government’s subsidy to allow CUC to purchase additional fuel. The CUC stopped the load shedding effective 4:30pm last Wednesday.

CUC’s power generation for Saipan, Tinian and Rota costs nearly $180,000 daily, according to Samari. On Saipan, Samari said Power Plant 1 and 4 consumes an average of 70,000 gallons and 14,000 gallons of fuel, respectively, at a cost of $1.75 per gallon. The daily consumption results in a daily fuel cost of $147,000.

Samari said Tinian’s daily fuel consumption averages 12,000 gallons, while that on Rota reaches 4,000 gallons. At the rate of $2 per gallon, the CUC’s daily fuel cost for the two islands’ power plants reaches $32,000.

Samari added, though, that the CUC’s monthly collections have been hovering around $6 million since the implementation of the fuel surcharge. Samari said no power load shedding related to fuel supply and the CUC’s cash flow could be seen in the coming days.