Power plant runs out of fuel

Power outages hit Garapan and other villages after the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s power plant in Puerto Rico ran out of fuel yesterday morning.

Capitol Hill, Kagman, and other villages connected to CUC’s Feeder 4 experienced a power interruption from 10:30am to 10:45am.

As soon as the power went back on the Feeder 4 areas, CUC turned Feeder 2 offline. This caused almost three hours of power outage in Garapan and Chalan Laulau, down to the San Jose stoplight on Beach Road.

Feeder 2 is the only CUC feeder that does not provide power to any school. Garapan Elementary School is connected to Feeder 1.

Pamela Mathis, CUC special adviser for corporate communications, explained that a miscommunication between Mobil Oil Marianas and the independent power producer operating the Puerto Rico plant caused a delay in the fuel delivery.

She related that on Friday afternoon, CUC made a payment of nearly $2 million to Mobil for three fuel deliveries.

Mobil made the first two deliveries on Friday evening and on Saturday. But since Sunday is a non-working day for Mobil staff, the third delivery was put off for Monday.

Pacific Marine and Industrial Corp., which operates Power Plant 4, and Mobil apparently failed to reach a clear understanding on the schedule of the third delivery. As a result, the Puerto Rico plant ran out of fuel to generate electricity yesterday morning, Mathis said.

“This is not an issue of CUC not paying. It had to do with money only in that CUC not only paid, but [Mobil] owed us fuel,” Mathis said.

Nevertheless, she admitted that Mobil would have been able to make the deliveries earlier if CUC had paid earlier.

CUC and Mobil currently have no formal contract. CUC purchases fuel based on need and pays the oil company by shipment.

In related news, Mathis urged CUC customers to conserve energy.

She noted that Power Plant 4, for instance, is currently burning more power than it did before, owing to the traditional increase in electricity consumption during the dry season.

“CUC is urging the government to keep their air-conditioning off as much as possible. As for the households, please conserve energy and [be reminded that] the fuel surcharge of 3.5-cent per kwh takes effect starting this month,” Mathis said.