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Blackouts expand to airport, other areas
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Posted on Jul 29 2005
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. issued yesterday a new power outage schedule that includes the Saipan International Airport and the northern Saipan areas.
CUC power generation manager Almondo C. Santos said the revised load shedding schedule would be effective tomorrow, Sunday, as utility personnel performs maintenance work on an engine at the Lower Base power plant.
Santos explained that the right-side turbo-charger of the 13-year-old Engine No. 7 had to be replaced. While this was being down, the 13-megawatt generator would be able to produce only 9 megawatts of electricity.
As a result, CUC had to expand the load-shedding schedule to other areas formerly unaffected by the rolling blackouts. These areas include the Saipan airport, As Perdido, Tanapag, San Roque, As Matuis, and Marpi.
Commonwealth Ports Authority executive director Carlos Salas assured the public that the airport management was aware and prepared for the scheduled blackout.
According to CUC, a two-hour power outage will be experienced starting 9am at Capitol Hill, As Teo, Kagman, and part of Papago.
From 11am to 1pm, the lights will go out from the Mobil gas station in Koblerville to San Antonio, Afetnas, and Chalan Piao.
Next on the schedule are China Town, Gualo Rai, and Chalan Laulau on Middle Road, whose residents will have to do without electricity from 1pm to 3pm.
The villages of Tanapag, San Roque, As Matuis, and Marpi will be hit by a power outage from 3pm to 5pm.
This will be followed by a blackout from 5pm to 7pm at the Saipan airport, Koblerville, As Perdido, and As Gonno.
From 7pm to 9om, the power outage will move to the Garapan Fishing Base area down to Chalan Laulau on Beach Road.
CUC has been implementing load shedding since the week started, initially due to low power generation by the 25-year-old Engine No. 4. The generator, which has a capacity of 7.5 megawatts, is down with 6 megawatts because of maintenance problems.
