CUC emergency extended for 8th straight month

Acting Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez extended for the eighth straight month the state of disaster emergency for the Commonwealth Utilities Corp., citing additional reasons for the declaration including power outages, eight water pumps that are out of service, and failed wastewater collection pipes.

The acting governor signed the latest disaster declaration on March 1; it will last for 31 days.

The signing of Executive Order 2009-02 means that CUC remains under the administration’s control to ensure that CUC’s rented generators from Aggreko will continue to produce power and prevent rolling blackouts, pending compliance with federal environmental laws.

“This declaration is still necessary to protect the health and safety of our children, our senior citizens, businesses and all other CNMI residents and visitors,” Villagomez said in his nine-page executive order, which also allows the administration to award contracts without going through the bidding process.

CUC faces additional challenges due to the failure of its electric distribution facilities. In February, for example, Saipan experienced 23 hours of partial field outages, but no whole island blackouts. Some of these outages were necessary, scheduled outages.

“Virtually all of these outages were due to deteriorated power distribution hardware…There is no indication that any of the above situation will be resolved in the next month,” states the executive order.

CUC has also determined that its Tank 104 used oil facility is structurally unsound and must be emptied of its used oil in advance of severe weather, particularly a serious typhoon, to avoid any potential harm to the CNMI’s waters, including the lagoon.

“CUC continues to occasionally lose generation capacity, which creates intermittent blackouts on portions of its system,” Villagomez said, adding that CUC continues to rehabilitate Power Plant 1’s engine 7 and is preparing units 5 and 1 for rehabilitation.

As of the writing of the executive order, Villagomez said eight pumps are out of service at CUC water wells.

Materials have entered the wastewater collection pipes through pipe failure, he added.

“By today’s disaster emergency declaration, I intend to enable CUC, within the intent of Public Law 16-9, to continue to implement the temporary power contract which it signed. The purpose is to make the electric system reliable as soon as practicable during the period of repair of CUC’s generators,” he said.

The declaration directs CUC to document procurement activity and notify specific officials; contract with an independent power producer for two years or less; provide within 30 days permits or compliance plans; procure the labor and equipment needed to fix the Chalan Kiya distribution system; and remove used oil from tank 104 and other barrels; among other things.