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3 power outages over the weekend
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Posted on Nov 20 2006
Three power outages affecting some villages on Saipan over the weekend were caused by a damaged transformer and power engine problem, according to the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. yesterday.
CUC spokesperson Pamela Mathis said a busted transformer caused power outages in Lower Base to Esco’s on Capital Hill Saturday from 2:35pm to 2:49pm.
Mathis said that from 2:49pm to 3:18pm, the outage was from Esco’s Capital Hill down to Kagman.
“That was the outage that was caused by the transformer in the Sadog Tasi Sablan Quarry,” Mathis said.
The CUC spokesperson explained that, barring weather factors, a transformer could last up to seven years.
“Otherwise moisture is the No. 1 cause for a transformer to fail earlier than its lifespan,” she said.
“Typically it’s the moisture that gets into the transformer that causes the oil reaction, that mixing of water and hot oil that will expand the pressure and cause the seal to break and the transformer to make a loud sound and fail,” she said.
Mathis said that on Sunday the first power outage was from 2:30pm to possibly 3:30pm in Lower Base, Sadog Tasi, Capital Hill, Isa Drive, to As Teo, down to Kagman.
“That’s the outage that we have no cause for. We cannot locate any transformer problem or line problem,” she said.
Mathis said that in the Kagman area, one of their employees observed that some children were playing fireworks.
The children put sheets of metal on top of the fireworks to make a bigger explosion or to make them go higher in the air.
“So the sound is almost as loud as the transformer sound. And we are concerned that those fireworks are going into our lines,” she said.
Mathis said two other outages occurred on Sunday because of an alarm on the power engine.
She said the outage was very short, affecting Lower Base, Sadog Tasi, Isa Drive, As Teo, and Kagman from 5:32pm to 5:49pm
Mathis said the other outage, caused by the same problem with generator No. 5 in Power Plant 1, affected Garapan, San Jose-Beach Road from 6:35pm to 6:52 pm.
