Saipan faces power shortage, CUC warns

Saipan will be facing serious power outages in the next few months due to lack of a stable generation capacity to supply electricity to residences and commercial establishments on the island, according to the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation.

Timothy P. Villagomez, CUC executive director, said the government-owned utility firm has no sufficient power to allow some businesses to hook with its system.

“We have serious concern with regards to the future generation capacity. This is expected as new apartments and establishments are coming up, CUC has no generation capacity to accommodate this,” he told reporters.

Despite NMI’s worsening economic crisis that has forced nearly 1,000 businesses to close shop, CUC is still short in meeting the power demand on Saipan which has continued to rise in recent months, Villagomez said.

The utility firm, which has a current capacity of 60 megawatts, has identified an additional 40 megawatts of power that it needs to generate for users not hooked up with its system, particularly those newly constructed buildings and homes.

“We don’t have the back up generation,” Villagomez explained. “We want to make sure that as we go through, we don’t want to overload our system.”

While the closure of some companies has contributed to decline of its income, CUC is eyeing other firms, especially garment factories and hotels, to boost its revenues by providing their power supply and other utility requirements.

Villagomez said most of the businesses that shut down ran their own power generator and had no impact on CUC load. He added that he has declined requests for hook up due to frail power situation.

A proposal to build an 80-megawatt power plant on Saipan is on hold pending resolution of protests stemming from earlier decision by CUC to award the $120 million project to Marubeni-Sithe over 12 other companies.

Villagomez maintained the power supply is expected to improve once the new plant becomes operational. “We need to get our power generation on line and the only way to accommodate this is to build the infrastructure,” he said.

An independent engineering firm is set to review the various proposals on the Saipan plant in a move to clear charges of unfair deal leveled against CUC, a move that may further delay its construction.

The project, to be constructed under the build-operate-transfer scheme, is designed to address power shortage by the end of the decade when Saipan becomes more populated.