Rolling blackouts to resume in Jan. if…

The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. will have no choice but resort to power load shedding after the New Year if it does not receive this week the $500,000 fuel cost subsidy that was earlier promised by the central government.

Newly designated CUC acting executive director Tony Guerrero assured, though, that he expects the government to remit the $500,000 to the CUC today, adding quickly that the possibility of another batch of load shedding has become unlikely due to that commitment.

If the CUC does not receive the subsidy today, Guerrero said fuel stock for CUC’s power generation might only last for the New Year. Even if the money comes in, he said the fuel supply could only last until Wednesday.

“We are still working with the Department of Finance. We were informed that it [subsidy] will be forthcoming,” Guerrero said. “There are all indications from the administration that it will assist us in any possible way.”

Even if CUC receives the $500,000 subsidy today, Guerrero said the beleaguered utility firm needs the government’s continuing support. He said CUC would need an additional government subsidy next week to sustain its power generation operations.

The government earlier promised to give CUC an additional $1 million next week, but CUC has yet to receive clear-cut assurance that it would receive the funds on time.

CUC’s power generation for Saipan, Tinian, and Rota costs approximately $179,000 daily, according to then acting CUC executive director Sohale Samari.

On Saipan, Samari said the operational power plants, Power Plant 1 and 4, consume 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 consumption for the two islands’ power plants costs $32,000.

Saipan’s villages experienced power outages on Tuesday and Wednesday last week due to the lack of fuel for the Saipan power plants, but CUC halted the power load shedding due to the government’s $1 million subsidy.

Due to financial woes, the CUC has also begun shutting down streetlights on many parts of Saipan. Streetlights that are not on primary roads such as Beach Road and Middle Road are being shut down to conserve fuel, according to the CUC. It said it received several inquiries from government agencies, churches and private homeowners about the streetlight problem that has reportedly resulted in cases of vandalism.

Guerrero said an assessment is being done regarding the amount of power consumption that goes to the streetlights.

“We’re looking into the streetlights issue,” Guerrero said.

He assured that CUC would take into consideration the public’s concern, but added that the utility firm could only respond to the problem within its means.