VOA working on power link

The Voice of America relay station on Tinian is expected to hook up with the island’s new 10-megawatt power plant in eight months after it has built its own electrical distribution system, according to officials.

The Commonwealth Utilities Corporation is also finalizing an agreement to provide a lower rate for the federally-owned broadcasting company which will be the first US agency stationed in the CNMI to be covered under the special arrangement.

Pamela Mathis, CUC information officer, said VOA will begin within the next few weeks the construction of poles, either underground or overhead, as well as installation of cables to link the relay station with the newly opened power plant.

“They will be on line in eight months,” she said, adding a final agreement has yet to be forged on the proposed distribution system running from the VOA facility to the Tinian power plant.

Mathis estimated the total cost to reach up to $1.1 million which the public radio will shoulder as part of the deal to lower the rate being charged by CUC to commercial users.

She said VOA will also have to pay security deposit, which is calculated based on two-month consumption of electricity. Both agencies will still work out the amount.

Timothy P. Villagomez, executive director of the government-owned utility corporation, earlier has said they would agree to the VOA request on the condition that it would spend for the costs of hooking up with the island power.

Situated on a 800-acre US Navy property on Tinian, the $33 million relay station had its formal inauguration last week, although it began radio transmission to Asian countries as early as January.

Using initially an on-site generator to power baseline transmitters with three-megawatt capacity, VOA is poised to become a major consumer of the 10-MW power plant which went on line last February.

It will source power from the CUC plant when the Tinian broadcasting facility expands with bigger transmitters requiring up to five megawatts.

According to Villagomez, CUC will charge the station the residential rate of 11 cents per kilowatt-hour, instead of the commercial rate of 16 cents which also includes all federal agencies on the island, for at least two years to help defray its infrastructure investments.

Last year, the US Information Agency which runs the radio, had asked CUC to reduce the current power rate to make it at par with the costs of installing a self-generated power.

CUC previously had balked at the proposal due to potential impact on the revenues from the plant built at a cost of $12 million which might not be sufficient to meet its financial obligations to its private contractor.

Any change in the power rate could alter the initial plan on the plant, including a proposed expansion into a 30-MW facility that will provide electricity to several development projects being mapped out for Tinian, according to utility officials.