CUC: MOU with other utilities hastened NMI’s recovery

Commonwealth Utilities Corp. executive director Gary Camacho, third from right, updates members of the Senate Public Utilities, Transportation, and Communications Committee during a meeting yesterday on Capital Hill. (Jon Perez)

Gary Camacho, the executive director of the Commonwealth Utilities Corp., credits the many memoranda of understanding they inked with other utility providers for creating powerful partnerships that came handy after the onslaught by Super Typhoon Yutu in October 2018.

CUC’s latest MOU is with the Guam Water Authority, with Camacho and his counterpart, Miguel C. Bordallo, signing the MOU. Camacho said this further strengthened ties between the CNMI and its southern neighbor.

“These are the types of relationships that you need in these times of disasters. The MOU is to assist each other in times of need. It establishes a professional working relationship to enhance each other’s utilities. It is to assist each other in an event of a disaster,” said Camacho.

“They [GWA] were out here for the first time. They are a bunch of wonderful guys that really assisted us in getting our water back to 24 hours. They worked well with our [CUC] staff and there was a lot of respect between the two groups. I will never forget what they’ve done for us and we will be there for them in the future.”

CUC already has a longstanding partnership with the Guam Power Authority under one of Camacho’s mentors, general manager John Benavente. The one Camacho and Bordallo signed renews that commitment.

CUC signed such MOUs in the last couple of years with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, San Antonio’s City Public Service Energy Texas, Hawaii Electric, and the Federated States of Micronesia’s Pohnpei Utilities Corp. and Kosrae Utility Authority.

Camacho said these partnerships helped the CNMI recover from Yutu, as restoration work on power and water services were much faster compared to the time when Typhoon Soudelor hit the CNMI in August 2015. “These [MOU’s] are the things that you need that would be beneficial in the future.”

“We were not going to able to do these types of emergency response without the help of our partners. We couldn’t have done it alone. You need to have these kinds of relationships,” added Camacho, who was present in yesterday’s Senate Public Utilities, Transportation, and Communications Committee hearing.

Linemen and other crews from the FSM, Guam, Palau, and private contractor Primary Source Electric helped CUC restore power and water distribution after Yutu. Some had already left the islands, while others like PSE and GPA continue to assist CUC in replacing wooden power poles with concrete ones as part of a hardening project.

“You need to have an understanding on the quality of work that you are looking for. They need to know and prepare themselves and we need to prepare ourselves for them. And all the work that these people have been willing to assist us with is indeed never going to be forgotten by the CNMI and CUC. We appreciate everything that they have done,” said Camacho.