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CUC gets 1.1M gallons of fuel
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Posted on Jan 06 2006
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. yesterday received 1.1 million gallons of fuel that will sustain power generation for the next 18 to 20 days.
Acting CUC executive director Tony Guerrero said the fuel has already been transferred from Mobil’s tanker, which arrived Saipan from Singapore.
The CUC managed to put up the $2-million payment for the fuel delivery through another subsidy from the CNMI government.
Since the week before Christmas Day, the government has subsidized CUC’s fuel costs by a total of $3.5 million to sustain the utility firm’s power generation on the islands.
Saipan experienced power load shedding on Dec. 20 and 21 due to the dwindling fuel supply for CUC’s two operational power plants on the island. The subsidies averted rolling blackouts during the holidays.
On Thursday, however, Saipan’s villages experienced power outages due to engine trouble at CUC’s Power Plant 1 in Lower Base. The CUC restored power generation to normal in the afternoon after some villages experienced power outage for nearly three hours.
The CUC has been suffering from a cash flow problem, despite its average monthly collection of $6 million. The monthly collections include fuel surcharge on top of the cost of customers’ power consumption.
When asked about how the CUC would deal with the fuel problem once the new supply runs out, Guerrero said: ”We’ll have to bring up the next payments before the board and the new administration [of Gov.-elect Benigno Fitial].”
