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‘Executive, legislature should tackle power crisis’
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Posted on Jan 10 2006
Both the executive and legislative branches of government should look into the power crisis, as government subsidy for the power plants’ fuel consumption will not stop the crisis at all.
Senate President Joseph Mendiola said this Monday, adding that leaders of both chambers of the Legislature and the administration of Gov. Benigno Fitial should work together in addressing the problem.
Mendiola also noted previous findings that 25 percent of power generated by the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.’s power plants are being lost.
“A 25-percent loss in power generation is unacceptable,” Mendiola said. “Something’s wrong. That’s really a big concern for me.”
He said the percentage of loss in Guam reaches only 9 percent, and the U.S. territory aims to reduce the loss further to 6 percent.
CUC has been suffering from a cash flow problem, with its monthly collection hovering around $6 million only, despite the implementation of the fuel surcharge. The power plants’ fuel consumption costs approximately $179,000 daily.
Last week, the government gave the CUC some $2 million to pay for Mobil’s delivery of 1.1 million gallons of fuel that would sustain power generation for the next 18 to 20 days.
The government has given the CUC a total of $3.5 million in fuel cost subsidy since the week before Christmas Day to avert rolling blackouts during the holidays. The CUC had to resort to power load shedding on Saipan on Dec. 20 and 21 as fuel stock on its power plants were running low.
