82 pct. of Saipan now energized

Nearly three months after Super Typhoon Yutu brought the island’s power grid to its knees, the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. announced that they have successfully restored power to 11,163 customers representing 82 percent of its overall customer base on Saipan.

In an interview yesterday, CUC executive director Gary P. Camacho said before the storm, they had 13,555 customers.

With regards to Tinian, Camacho said as of yesterday a total of 63 percent of total customers on the island now have power.

The executive director said they anticipate to work quickly and efficiently over the next month.

Camacho said on Saipan, if the materials come in or arrive, their target is to try to energize all the customers that are capable or those would be available and ready by February.

He noted that many customers’ houses or buildings are destroyed and still need repairs.

Camacho said there are a number of areas on the island that still have not been receiving power.

However, he said, CUC has 200 transformers coming in on Monday and an additional 200 more arriving on Jan. 24.

He also disclosed that they got additional equipment coming in next Monday for power’s primary source and would add seven more crews on the ground.

“We’re dependent on materials to finalize these restoration efforts. We still have a number of homes that obviously don’t have power,” he said.

“But the primary system is easily 93 percent across the island of Saipan and we need to continue that with the materials continuing to arrive,” Camacho said.

He said such equipment they are eagerly waiting for are transformers, which are the connections that decrease the primary voltage low enough for use in homes.

“And those are the things that we are waiting for. And those are expected to arrive on Monday,” he said.

Camacho said in the event that there is a problem with weather or anything for that matter then the public should understand that those dates could change.

“But if not, then we plan in getting them on the ground and utilizing them quickly as the crews are waiting and anticipating the arrival,” he said.

Camacho said Monday is the expected arrival of the first 200 transformers and 200 more after that and continue forward to a total of approximately 800 transformers.

With respect to concrete power poles, Camacho said over 856 should be arriving this Friday from South Korea.

“They’re supposed to be here on the 13th, however, due to weather issues, we were informed of the challenges in navigating through the waters from Korea to the CNMI as the result of the weather,” he said.

On Tinian, Camacho said, a lot of their materials will be arriving today, Thursday, into Tinian.

“From there, they should be able to progress very quickly,” he said, noting that they are adding two more heavy crews to Tinian and one light crew.

He said the equipment will be coming on Monday next week.

He said additional crews will be deployed to Tinian to help speed up restoration efforts.

He said some of the 200 transformers coming in will be brought to Tinian.