Power plant foundation cracks trigger need for ‘emergency’ procurement

An emergency procurement was needed for the repair of the foundation of one of the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s generators—demonstrating the sorry state of the utility company’s power infrastructure.

During the board of directors’ meeting last Saturday, power generation manager Richard Cano sought for the board of directors’ approval for an emergency procurement.

Cano said immediate repair of the foundation of Engine No. 5 is needed due to its structural issue.

It was determined that the whole structure of the power plant has problems with the vibration caused by the engines which is a foundation issue and that foundation bolts are breaking because the structure was not solidly built and not able to withstand the vibrations.

Prior repairs to foundations of Engine Nos. 7 and 8 and of up to 16 foundation bolts were made, but a crack that was discovered as early as August last year triggered the need for the repair of Engine No. 5.

Cano said they were able to get the exact quotation to procurement by the end of October last year. The price tag of the project is $450,000.

Cano said Engine No. 5 is on standby, meaning it is not base load but they use it whenever repairs are needed to other engines.

He added that they “don’t want to break the engine” that’s why there is a need to fix its foundation.

Because of the immediate need, they were advised to go through the emergency procurement process.

“Based on the fact that we have a minimum amount of reserve that we have right now, if something happens to one of the engines unexpectedly, then we need to bring that engine on to be able to cover that and still maintain some kind of capacity,” CUC legal counsel James Sirok said, “You want this repaired immediately. You can’t afford to wait for three to five months for the normal procurement process.”

The board approved the emergency procurement, but even so, it was estimated that it will take two to three months to get the contractor on island and the repair will take about five weeks.

Cano said the company, Alphatec which was formerly in Japan, is now based in Spain. Several specialists are needed from Spain but most of the workers will be from Malaysia.

No one from Saipan and Guam can do this specialized project, according to Cano.

Ailing infrastructure

The state of CUC’s infrastructure has been part of the CUC board’s discussion in the past months. Several engines, some of which are up to 40 years old, are undergoing repairs. Their assets are over 70 percent depreciated.

Conversations on CUC’s low reserve of only about 44 percent of its total production were also brought to the board during prior meetings.

The discussion for the emergency procurement was made before the CUC board’s discussion on its Integrated Resource Plan during the same meeting; however, the majority of the board still chose to delay decision on the plan, which was supposed to help CUC choose feasible, cost-effective, and reliable resources for their power generation. It has been in the works since 2014.