More power outages today

Saipan residents are warned of additional power outages today, as the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. tests a newly repaired engine at one of the Lower Base power plants.

The final calibrations culminate the month-long repair on Engine No. 8, one of the three broken engines at Power Plant 1.

The project involved fixing severe vibration on one of the base load generators at the power plant. Man B&W Diesel (Singapore) Ltd., the contractor hired by CUC, did this by installing 17 anchor bolts.

In order to test the newly fixed generator, Man B&W must keep the next engine silent and motionless. This means that CUC must shut down the 13-megawatt Engine No. 7, leaving the utility in further need of power generation capacity today.

CUC management specialist Pamela Mathis said additional load shedding had been added to the normal schedule. The power outages will affect entire grids, rather than just portions of them.

“However, the outages will not last more than two hours per electric grid,” Mathis assured the public.

She added that power plant crews anticipate the repair of Engine No. 8 to be completed, as promised, by Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2005.

Engine No. 8 was shut down following an assessment by Man B&W on Jan. 23, 2005, to ensure safety of CUC employees and to protect the engine from the effects of the vibrations. This left Saipan’s main power plant short of a 13-megawatt generator, or about 11-megawatt capacity each day and night.

As a result, CUC currently generates only 60 megawatts of power a day. This is 8 megawatts short of the demand during peak hours. If brought back in service, Engine No. 8 will provide additional capacity of 10.5 megawatts to CUC and enable it to handle the community’s demand for electricity.

One megawatt feeds power to about 750 homes, or one large hotel.

The repair of Engine No. 8 is seen as a solution to load shedding, which CUC has been doing due to a power generation problem. Since July 28, 2005, affected Saipan villages have been experiencing at least two hours of power outage a day.

“During the 30-day repair work, CUC took advantage of the unit down time and completed an overhaul of Unit 8—important maintenance scheduled approximately every 10,000 hours. The parts and materials were available for this overhaul,” Mathis said.

CUC will resume its normal load shedding schedule on Sunday and Monday, taking power out for the fewest possible customers, Mathis added.

“If, however, the temperatures rise quite high and customers use too much energy, the utility may be forced to take the entire grid, matching the shortage of power to the closest sized grid. To protect engines that operate in extreme heat, there may be no warning, or if possible, radio station updates as required,” she said.