Two more weeks to go

Two more weeks to go before the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. will end load shedding and hopefully start providing uninterrupted power service on Saipan, Gov. Juan N. Babauta announced yesterday.

In a public briefing at the Multi Purpose Center, Babauta said that CUC should have enough power generation capacity to accommodate consumer demand by Sept. 6, 2005, when the repair of Engine No. 8 at Power Plant 1 is expected to be completed.

“CUC is on schedule to end load shedding in the first week of September,” Babauta said.

The utility firm started load shedding on July 28, 2005 due to under-generation. As a result, affected Saipan villages have been experiencing at least two hours of power outage a day.

Acting CUC executive director Bernard Villagomez explained that CUC currently generates only 60 megawatts of power a day. This is 8 megawatts short of the demand during peak hours.

But Villagomez said that the problem should be solved when Engine No. 8 is brought back to service on Sept. 6 and starts providing additional 10.5 megawatts to CUC’s current capacity.

“This should bring our capacity above the peak load and end load shedding,” he said.

Almost $400,000 has been spent on replacing the 17 foundation bolts and doing other repairs on Engine No. 8, Villagomez said.

He also reported that there had been some delay in the completion of work on Engine No. 3. It is now scheduled to be finished in the third week of September, rather than the initial Aug. 25 target, due to the need for additional machines.

Engine No. 3, which has a capacity of 6.5 megawatts, has now cost about $400,000 to $600,000 to repair.

Another broken power generator, Engine No. 4, is expected to be back in service in October 2005.

Villagomez said CUC had to send some of the engine’s components to Singapore for repair, while overdue maintenance was being performed on island—for a total cost of $500,000. Engine No. 4 will provide additional 6.5 megawatts of power.

Other efforts are also being made to increase CUC’s generation capacity.

Four of the six engines at Power Plant 2 are now running, providing a total capacity of 6.4 megawatts to Saipan. None of the Power Plant 2 engines were working before the governor declared the state of emergency at CUC.

Furthermore, CUC has installed a transformer and switch gears to La Fiesta’s power generation system. Scheduled for completion within the next two to three weeks, the La Fiesta project will provide 1 to 2 megawatts and help serve the last portion of Feeder 7, which includes the As Matuis, San Roque, and Marpi areas.

“We are now on schedule to end load shedding by Sept. 6. But we urge our customers to please continue to conserve energy even after that date because we still have very little reserve capacity,” said Villagomez. “By the end of September, we will have more breathing room when Engine No. 3 is back online.”