CUC assured of parts’ arrival today

Fears of possible delay in the Sept. 6 conclusion of rotating blackouts were dispelled yesterday, with the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. receiving assurance that the necessary material for the repair of a broken generator would be delivered to the power plant by noontime today.

Ivo Post, project manager of CUC contractor Man B&W Diesel Singapore, said he would likely keep the Sept. 6 target for the completion of repair of the Engine No. 8 at Power Plant 1.

He reported that the vessel carrying the chockfast material needed for the engine repair was expected to arrive at 10:30pm Monday and be at the Lower Base power plant by 12nn today.

“The delivery papers have been checked and they should be cleared by noontime [Tuesday]. We were also assured that nothing happened to the goods. Everything looks good. I would possibly keep the Sept. 6 schedule,” Post said.

He earlier advised CUC and government officials of possible delay in the engine repair schedule after finding that the delivery of the material was going to be late by at least four days.

Singapore-based V-Grow Shipping Pte. Ltd. had promised that the Kyowa Salvia 29 vessel, which was carrying the material, would reach Saipan on Aug. 25. However, the ship’s estimated arrival time was later revised to Aug. 29 due to bad weather conditions.

Post said Man B&W was not informed of the delay until Aug. 25. The contractor was led to believe that the ship left the port in Busan, Korea as early as Aug. 16, he added.

“With the new vessel [estimated to arrive on] Saipan Aug. 29th, 2005, we can expect the material to reach the power plant on Aug. 30, 2005. As such, our ‘advance days’ would have been wasted and we are nearly thrown back to the initial schedule,” he said. “To CUC/government [officials] reading this: any further delay of arrival of goods will affect the promised completion day of Engine No. 8, Sept. 6, 2005.”

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

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.