Despite crisis, CUC goes ahead with Power Week

Despite the current power crisis, there’s no stopping the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. from holding a Power Week this year.

Flanked by over 20 CUC power transmission and distribution personnel, Gov. Juan N. Babauta signed a proclamation yesterday declaring Oct. 2–9, 2005 as the CNMI Public Power Week.

In his remarks, the governor said he owes the CUC personnel, mostly line crews, “a very deep sense of gratitude” for keeping up their work.

“I want to express my deep appreciation. We’re going through a difficult time. What you’ve done is to bring back stability. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from this crisis is that our island economy is very vulnerable. It showed how dependent we are on electricity,” he said.

Babauta said he is most appreciative to the hard work of the line crew since they are the ones who actually fix power line problems.

“Everything that happens is the governor’s fault. So every time power is restored and people would thank me, I tell them, ‘Don’t thank me, thank those guys at CUC,’” he said.

In the proclamation, he said that CUC personnel “are always ready to provide continued electrical services before and during the storms and always the first, after the storms, to work rapidly around the clock, with minimal rest, to restore electric services.”

The governor, who currently has emergency control of CUC, said another important lesson learned in the crisis “is to put the highest priority on maintenance of everything that’s mechanical.”

The government acknowledged that the power crisis stemmed from a lack of maintenance of CUC’s power plants. Just in the last few days, power engines broke down, causing power outages.

CUC executive director Lorraine A. Babauta said during the proclamation signing that CUC will continue to work “to bring more affordable, safer, and more reliable electrical service to the community homes and businesses.”

Power division manager Diego Babauta said that more than 2,000 other public power systems in the U.S. celebrates Power Week next week.

Formally called CNMI/American Public Power Week, the event gathers CUC personnel and participants from private companies for friendly competition activities such as pole line climbing.

Power Week celebration chair Gary Camacho said the event will commence with a Mass dedicated to the linemen at Kagman Church at 9am on Oct. 2.

He said school presentations will be held during the week to bring awareness among the students on electrical safety, power generation and distribution.

“These presentations are in high demand every year at various public schools,” Camacho said.

Presentations are scheduled to be held in Dandan, San Vicente, Oleai, Kagman, San Antonio, WSR, and GTC elementary schools. He said presentations will also be conducted on Rota and Tinian.