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‘CUC power almost enough to meet need’
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Posted on Sep 12 2005
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. now generates almost enough electricity to meet Saipan’s peak load demand, with additional capacity being provided by a newly fixed engine at Power Plant 2.
Power generation manager Almondo Santos reported yesterday that the repair of Engine No. 5 at Power Plant 2 in Lower Base was completed on Friday, Sept. 9, 2005. This brought the plant’s capacity to 3.2 megawatts and CUC’s total capacity to 66.6 megawatts daily.
The community demands about 68 megawatts of power during peak hours.
CUC shut down the 2.5-megawatt generator at Power Plant 2 due to damaged auxiliary driving gear. “The power generation staff has replaced the damaged gear. This unit is now providing additional 1.6 megawatts of electricity per day,” said Santos.
The villages benefiting from the additional capacity include Puerto Rico, Sadog Tasi, Navy Hill, Garapan, and China Town.
Only two of the six generators at Power Plant 2 are operational. The other working unit is Engine No. 1, which is also designed to produce 2.5 megawatts but currently provides 1.6 megawatts of electricity.
The four other engines, all having the same capacity, are under rehabilitation.
Santos said Engine No. 4 was expected to be back in service by the end of this week.
Furthermore, Santos reported that Engine No. 8 at Power Plant 1—CUC’s main power plant—was producing 9.8 megawatts as of yesterday.
CUC’s contractor, Man B&W Singapore Pte. Ltd, finished fixing the 13-megawatt Engine No. 8, and enabled the utility to end load shedding last week. CUC personnel then took over the work, breaking in the engine and gradually increasing its generating level.
“We will continue working on this generator until we bring the capacity up to 10.5 megawatts,” said Santos.
As of yesterday, Power Plant 1 was producing a total of 52.8 megawatts while Power Plant 2 was generating 3.2 megawatts. All of the three generators at Power Plant 3 in Isley Field were not operational. The privately run Power Plant 4 in Puerto Rico was generating 10.6 megawatts.
