Emergency declaration extended anew

For the third time, Gov. Juan N. Babauta is extending his emergency disaster declaration for another 30 days, citing the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s continued inability to provide a stable power supply to the community.

In a memorandum issued yesterday, Babauta cited that engines 3, 4, and 8 at Power Plant I remain offline and are undergoing repairs.

“As such, I find that the threat or danger to the CNMI caused by the lack of ‘back up’ or reserve power generation capacity, the continued need to initiate critical maintenance and repair of power generation facilities, and the uncertain financial condition of CUC and its ability to make all required fuel payments due to increased fuel costs, mandate the issuance of this state of disaster emergency declaration,” said the governor.

He said the declaration aims “to protect the health and safety of our children, our senior citizens, businesses, and all other CNMI residents and visitors.”

The governor said a comprehensive report on the emergency declaration for the first 90 days shall be transmitted to the Legislature “as soon as practicable.”

The House of Representatives said, though, that the governor has never submitted such reports to date.

In his July 18 memorandum extending the emergency declaration for an additional 30 days, Babauta had said that he would submit a comprehensive report within 10 days. This did not happen, according to the House leadership.

The camp of House Speaker Benigno R. Fitial said yesterday that the people would judge if the governor’s declaration has ever worked.

“I’m sure the people can judge the performance of CUC under the declaration. We’ve been under the state of emergency for three months now, yet we continue to suffer from regular power outages and the fuel surcharge still burdens the consumers. There’s no clear resolution at this point,” said House leadership spokesman Charler Reyes Jr.

“So far it doesn’t look very encouraging,” Reyes added, citing that power plants remain in a state of disrepair.

Babauta and CUC earlier said that load shedding should be resolved by early September when engine 3 and 8 are expected to be up.

CUC contractor Man B&W Diesel (Singapore) project manager Ivo Post said in a recent press briefing that engine 3 is estimated to be up most likely on Aug. 25, engine 8 on Sept. 7, and engine 4 on Sept. 17. These three units are currently down, resulting in the eight-engine Power Plant 1 producing only 43 megawatts of power. By design, the power plant can generate up to 80 megawatts.

Saipan consumes an average of 60 megawatts daily.