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‘Outages are sign of more to come’
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Posted on May 16 2006
Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez said the power outages that Saipan has been experiencing are indications of more such outages in the future, unless the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. can immediately fix the problems of its engines.
Asked about the recent blackouts that had hit the island, Villagomez on Monday said he has made it known the importance of resolving the CUC engines issue.
“We don’t have a generation backup that CUC should have in place. And this is just a sign of what’s forthcoming,” he pointed out.
The Lt. Governor said more power outages are expected if CUC and the government will not “address the seriousness of the engines’ [problems] and in getting the proper backup and so forth.”
With the peak load on Saipan averaging at approximately 64-65 megawatt, Villagomez said that CUC is in an uncertain situation, with practically no reserve capacity.
In his recent State of the CUC Special Report, Villagomez warned that a forced outage at any of its engines would cause CUC to immediately implement load shedding, or worse cause an islandwide blackout at any given moment.
He cited that, besides not having enough generating capacity, half of the engines at Power Plant 1 are more than 20 years old, with engines No. 1, 2, and 3 more than 25 years in service.
As part of the immediate plans, CUC has started performing an immediate but phased-in approach to repairing and overhauling all of the eight engines at Power Plant 1.
