CUC banking on $3.4M from govt, PSS

The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. is counting on the central government and the Public School System to pay more than $3 million in past debt in order to pay for the Aggreko generators, CUC Executive Director Antonio Muna said yesterday.

The government owes $1.6 million while PSS owes $1.8 million, he said.

“At this point, we’re leaning on the government,” Muna said. “We cannot lean on that. We really need to have everyone participate in this process.”

PSS paid $1.6 million to CUC in July after the Finance Department became involved in the situation.

Muna said he is confident the government and PSS will follow through with their debts.

“Hopefully no one up at the Legislature thinks I can pay Aggreko without their money,” he said.

Under the $6 million contract, CUC paid Aggreko $1.5 million to ship the generators, and they must pay $504,000 28 days after Sept. 12, when the generators were first turned on.

Muna said he hopes the two agencies pay the $3.4 million by the end of the month.

CUC is also cutting costs internally to save money. At a meeting yesterday, Muna spoke with senior level managers about scaling back overtime for CUC employees. With the power stabilized, workers within all the divisions—power generation, power distribution, water, and waste water—should not have to work as much, he said, adding that overtime should be reduced by 50 percent this week because of fewer outages. The utility company will focus on purchasing materials of the highest quality and only when necessary as well, he added.

Meanwhile, the three Power Plants and Aggreko generators were producing 42.7 megawatts yesterday; which more than covered the 41 megawatts needed to sufficiently power the island. This is the first time there has been reserve in several months.

Although there was plenty of power, a brief outage occurred in the early afternoon. Around 1:45pm, engine 8 at Power Plant 1 tripped, bringing down feeders 7 and 4. Within 10 minutes, crews were ready to bring the engine back up but had to secure the nearby water pumps first. The engine was ultimately running again 40 minutes later, Muna said.

“It’s a lot better than six hours,” he added.

On Tuesday, Gov. Benigno Fitial wrote a letter to Aggreko Sales Director Stephen Dunlop thanking him for the company’s performance.

“There was a collective sign of relief on Saipan Friday evening, when CUC was able to virtually eliminate the rotating blackouts caused by its deteriorating generating equipment. And I hope that this power stability will continue,” Fitial wrote in the letter.

Not all community members are satisfied with the current situation, though. A rally, seeking federal intervention into CUC, was planned for last night.

Muna said he respects the community members’ right to protest.

“People have a right,” he said. “No one here had any intention this is what we wanted to happen though. This is what we inherited. We’ve had these obstacles to overcome.”