Next: Cheaper power

What blessed relief! With a flick of a switch, the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. and its 16 Aggreko engines finally put a stop to the agonizing months of load shedding that Saipan has been going through, generating the 13 megawatts needed to provide everyone with that nearly miraculous ideal of 24-7 power. This enabled businesses to run smoothly, gave everyone a good night’s sleep, permitted CUC employees to have their days off, and allowed life to regain a certain measure of normalcy as could be achieved under current economic circumstances.

We must keep in mind, though, that these Aggreko generators are a temporary solution, a palliative measure intended to give CUC just enough breathing room for it to rehabilitate, repair, or replace its decrepit engines at Power Plant 1. That plant has eight power engines but only four have been working in the last few months, kept intact by prayers, faith, and baling wire. Even then, some of them would conk out now and then, leaving the entire island with just one engine running.

This gives added weight to the need to repair the engines now, particularly since we only have a year to do all that. Remember that the Aggreko deal is only for 12 months. The lease for those engines amounts to a hefty $6 million annually. Had we not had these problems with CUC, that $6 million could have been put to better use, such as buying a new engine or upgrading the island’s power distribution grid to lessen system’s losses. Be that as it may, we can’t afford another $6 million for another year. We just don’t have the money for it.

Besides the repair of the old engines, the next step is to bring down the cost of power. For businesses, the budget for electricity has more than doubled in the last two years, putting a tremendous strain on their ability to cope in the face of the continued slump in the economy. A lot of them have actually shut down because their balance sheets are already awash in red ink, rendering futile any further efforts to hang on. At the same time, families continue to flee the islands because they could no longer afford the high cost of power. This means that CUC’s customer base is continually being eroded, which could only result in fewer customers and therefore lesser income for the utility agency.

Worse, it has been reported that a large percentage of the population have had their power cut off because they could no longer afford to pay for it. It therefore behooves CUC and the CNMI government to explore all feasible options—including privatization, alternative energy and federal subsidy—to make power affordable again to those with the least among us. After all, the true measure of a civilized society is in the way it treats its underprivileged. Ultimately, 24-7 power means nothing to those with no money or the means to pay for it. By ensuring that everyone is connected, we give flesh to our ideals of an equitable society where power is not treated as optional but a necessity to achieving a decent quality of life.[B][I] (Saipan Tribune)[/I][/B]