The year when 8-hour blackouts found the CNMI

It’s something that seems so simple it’s taken for granted. Nobody thinks about it until it’s gone. But without it, civilization comes to a virtual standstill: lawmakers can’t make laws; courts can’t try individuals; motorists can’t count on streetlights; residents can’t take showers, flush toilets and, for those brave enough, can’t drink the tap water.

It all depends on power. And this summer, the island of Saipan experienced very little of it.

Rotating outages have been going on for a while as the island deals with the dilapidated, mismanaged and neglected Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s engines.

Outages have been bad for some time, but it hit a crescendo in July and August, when it was nearly impossible to know when one would have power or be sitting in the dark with a small battery-powered fan.

When power was the most unreliable it was also the most expensive. The fluctuating electric rate per kilowatt hour reached an all-time high in August at 41.3 cents, more than double what it was a few months prior.

The load shedding schedule was disseminated but it was impossible for CUC to follow it when there just wasn’t enough power being produced. The result? Outages lasting 12 hours, villages without running water for days, and backup generators breaking down from working too much.

But all that changed Sept. 11, when Aggreko stepped in and saved the day. Or, as some people might see it, stepped in without CUC looking at other options to save the day. Bringing in the $6-million emergency Aggreko engines was not without its hardships.

CUC executive director Antonio Muña spent a great deal of time explaining why Aggreko was the best choice for Saipan to obtain reliable and affordable power. But that was not enough. A law had to be passed exempting the Aggreko contract from review by the Public Utilities Corp. and CUC was forced to obtain a $3.5 million loan from Marianas Public Land Trust to make the initial $1.5 million payment on the generators and settle debts with other vendors.

“I am relieved not only for me, but from the public’s standpoint,” Muña said after receiving the $3.5 million check from MPLT. “With the emergency power from Aggreko…that will give us a chance to step back and approach fixing the engines without the desperation of meeting power demand at the same time.”

Muna described the process of getting the loan and sealing the Aggreko deal as “a roller-coaster ride.”

Since Aug. 1, CUC has been under a state of disaster emergency in order to circumvent procurement procedures and regulations relating to the generators.

Some lawmakers cried foul when the first emergency order, dated Aug. 1, was not made public until the middle of the month. Gov. Benigno Fitial responded with a lengthy explanation on the need for the order.

“The disaster declaration was drafted to address precisely the need to get these temporary power units in place as quickly as possible and shut down the potentially deadly Power Plant #1 engines. So, E0 2008-10 declared the disaster,” Fitial wrote.

Throughout all this, some local residents decided to take matters into their own hands and circulated petitions and held rallies, asking for federal intervention and an investigation into CUC’s activities.

The outcry began to quiet down as people became comfortable with 24-hour power and lower rates. So comfortable in fact that few attended public hearings where the PUC set new power rates for the next three months, and created a new system that would keep rates in place for six months at a time.

But the public is getting antsy once again as it becomes apparent that power generation is not CUC’s only issue. In fact it’s only one aspect of providing power. CUC and Aggreko can create so much power there’s a surplus, but it means nothing if it can’t be distributed to the residents and businesses on Saipan.

CUC’s distribution system is also old and dilapidated, causing brownouts and the occasional islandwide blackout. But at least the outages are lasting only a few hours as opposed to 12 hours at a time.

And it’s important not to forget that CUC is for sale for $250 million. The Legislature, against Fitial’s veto and Muña’s objections, passed a law seeking to privatize the utility agency for a quarter of a billion dollars. Any takers?