Power plant rehabilitated by end of 2009 if…

The Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s Power Plant 1 should be producing 41 megawatts of power—the island’s daily demand—by Dec. 31, 2009, if it gets the $3.89 million needed to repair the engines, according to an expenditure plan given to Gov. Benigno Fitial by CUC executive director Antonio Muña.

The plan details the timetable and amount of money needed to rehabilitate the engines at Power Plant 1.

Power Plant 1 currently is producing 8.5 megawatts. CUC is seeking $3.89 million in Capital Improvement Project funds from the Office of Insular Affairs for the work. That money, along with $1.59 million available from other account balances, will provide $5.48 million to rehabilitate the engines.

“In order to ensure that CUC is capable of producing sufficient and reliable power by Aggreko contract expiration and not have to implement a rotating brownout schedule that would be adverse to the CNMI’s economy and will place at risk the public health and safety of the CNMI residents, I am respectfully requesting an additional CIP funding of $3.89 million to pay for continued rehabilitation costs of Power Plant 1,” Muna wrote to Fitial.

The Aggreko contract expires Sept. 11, 2009, with a possible six-month extension.

According to the expenditure plan, CUC could produce 38.5 megawatts of power from Power Plant 1 by Sept. 30, 2009. That, along with the power produced by privately run Power Plant 4, would allow for 54 megawatts by Sept. 30, 2009.

The timeline provided to Fitial details the overhaul and maintenance schedules of units at Power Plant 1. By the end of 2008, according to the timeline, Power Plant 1 should produce 12.5 megawatts. Production will increase accordingly:

* March 2009: 22.5 megawatts
* June 2009: 28.5 megawatts
* September 2009: 38.5 megawatts
* November 2009: 33.5 megawatts (due to an overhaul of one engine)
* December 2009: 41 megawatts

According to the expenditure plan, the rehabilitation project will cost $5,484,923. It will be broken down into labor only ($800,000); labor, parts and materials ($4,088,503); and equipment, tools and instruments ($596,420). Engine number 5 will be the most expensive to rehabilitate at more than $2 million, while engine 2 will incur no costs.

In December 2007, CUC signed a six-month contract with Guam-based DCM Group for $5.1 million. DCM was hired to repair seven of the eight engines at Power Plant 1. In July of this year, CUC terminated the contract after DCM failed to fix the engines. Muña has said CUC paid DCM $400,000 before the contract was terminated. CUC is still in talks with the company to come to terms with an agreement.

“We still are trying to work with the contractor to get that resolved,” he has said. He said CUC did not want to file a lawsuit against DCM, and that the Attorney General’s Office was handling negotiations with the company.