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CUC explains Thursday night’s brownout
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Posted on May 05 2006
A falling tree branch could be the reason behind a power outage that affected some villages on Saipan Thursday night for about one hour, according to Commonwealth Utilities Corp. acting deputy of operations Patrick Leon Guerrero yesterday.
Leon Guerrero, in an interview with Saipan Tribune, said it was Feeder 1 that tripped and that based on what he monitored from the CUC crew, a falling tree branch was the possible cause.
“It sounds like that [tree branch] might be the problem. That’s what I’m guessing. I’m not sure,” said Leon Guerrero, adding that he is still waiting for the crew’s report.
Feeder I provides power along Middle Road from Lower Base to Gualo Rai. It also serves parts of Garapan, Chinatown, Navy Hill, Sadog Tasi, and Puerto Rico.
“I was listening to the radio and I heard the crew was isolating an area so what they had to do was remove the jumpers off lateral lines that went into the jungle,” the deputy executive director said.
The main lines are the ones parallel to the road; the lines that go into the jungle or housing area are called lateral lines.
“I think they had to go way up to the hills of Navy Hill and isolate some areas. Again this happened in the evening so maybe they could not see it, maybe there’s a tree branch or something that fell off,” he said.
In fixing that kind of problem, Leon Guerrero explained, they have to isolate or disconnect the power lines, remove the problem, then activate the rest of the lines.
He said the power outage lasted only about an hour, but the hospital only experienced half an hour of blackout.
Leon Guerrero pointed out that CUC always considers the hospital its number one priority because its generator does not produce enough power.
CUC has different Feeders—one on Beach Road and the other on Middle Road. Each Feeder is from a different source, he said.
“The one on Beach Road, there was no power interruption; only the one on Middle Road where the hospital is,” he said.
Leon Guerrero assured that their troubleshooters are always quick to respond to problems 24 hours daily.
