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$130K grant sought to pay for PPA aid
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Posted on Aug 26 2005
The Babauta administration is asking the federal government anew for funding assistance to solve the Commonwealth’s power crisis.
The U.S. Office of Insular Affairs only recently approved the CNMI government’s request to reprogram $3 million in capital improvement program funds to the CUC.
Gov. Juan N. Babauta said Thursday that the administration had asked the federal office for a $130,000 grant to pay for the technical assistance being provided by the Pacific Power Association to CUC.
PPA is helping the utility assess the condition and health of the engines at the Lower Base power plant, Babauta said.
John Pirie, a power utilities engineering adviser working with PPA, has been on island since last week to conduct a preliminary assessment of the engines.
PPA officials presented the result of his initial review to the Governor’s Office on Wednesday. Pirie also made himself available for the governor’s public hearing on CUC matters last Thursday.
“Currently, what we’ve virtually established is some connectivity between ongoing problems and the duration. But to do any other further work, what we need is access to the power plant itself—to actually isolate it and to run tests. This only can be down when the plant is available,” he said.
According to Pirie, the four major problems found at the power plant were: crankpin seizures, which he described as a lubrication problem; broken foundation bolts; insufficient cooling resulting in plant dehydration; and overdue maintenance.
“While these cases are independent of each other, they are actually interrelated factors. Because of overdue maintenance, these problems are cascading on top of another,” he said.
The Pacific Power Association is a non-governmental organization of electricity utilities, organizations and individuals in the Pacific region.
Aside from CUC, active members of the PPA include power utilities from American Samoa, Federated States of Micronesia, Samoa, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Fiji, Guam, Republic of Marshall Islands, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Tonga, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Cook Islands, and Tuvalu.
