Delays in fuel delivery at two power plants on Saipan triggered sudden rotating outages throughout the island yesterday.
The outage started at 5am. All power was restored by 1:15pm, according to the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.
CUC spokesperson Pamela Mathis also reminded the public that two-hour power outages typically results in reduced pressure and that the water system will stabilize with three to four hours after electricity is restored.
Mathis said limited and rotating outages began at 5am in Susupe, Chalan Kanoa, San Jose, and Garapan when fuel supplies were exhausted at the Power Plant 4 in Puerto Rico.
As customer demand for energy increased in the morning when schools, government and private businesses opened, the power plants could not keep pace with public demand, Mathis said.
She said this caused an additional outage on the northern electrical grid from Tanapag to Marpi, coupled with an outage on the electrical grid for Capital Hill and Kagman.
Mathis said that after two hours, those grids were brought back online and CUC shared the energy shortage burden with other customers-trading the outages for the Middle Road grid (Feeder 3) and As Lito, Koblerville, San Antonio (Kiya 2 Feeder).
“With those grids down for two hours, the outages again rotated to Dandan, San Vicente, the airport area, and Navy Hill. The only grid or area that did not experience a limited or two-hour outage was at the Commonwealth Health Center,” Mathis said.
The CUC spokesperson explained that due to limited customer collections and budget restrictions, existing fuel supplies are being stretched and few gallons of fuel were delivered to the smaller or supplemental power plants: Power Plant 2 in Lower Base and Power Plant 4 in Puerto Rico.
These power plants, she said, are used during peak customer demand or when bigger generators undergo maintenance at the primary power plant.
Mathis said that a primary generator in the main power plant was taken out of production Saturday evening for emergency maintenance because water leaked into the oil system.
“As this maintenance continued through Sunday, the Puerto Rico power plant was heavily utilized and its fuel supplies were exhausted,” she said.
Although requests and payment for fuel were facilitated early yesterday morning, Mathis said that Mobil Oil Guam did not approve delivery until 12 noon.
CUC has been delivering 25,000 gallons fewer diesel oil to Power Plant 4.
Mathis said Power Plant 1 also lacked lube oil supplies, being 90,000 barrels short yesterday morning.
She said Shell Marianas made an extra delivery in short order, enabling the mechanics to rush maintenance of the primary generation units in that plant.
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