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Delay in parts shipment pushes back CUC repairs
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Posted on Jun 07 2008
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. will not meet the targeted April 2009 completion of all repairs and maintenance work on its power engines due to a delay in the shipment of engine parts.
CUC executive director Antonio Muna told the media that the initial deadline they set to finish all the repairs—which they earlier shared with the Saipan Chamber of Commerce—may be pushed back a little because of parts shipment problems.
“Once the parts issue is resolved, then it’s just about manpower. So if we could get the parts, then the manpower issue can be accelerated,” Muna said.
He explained that it’s always the parts that cause the delay because some need to be manufactured first.
“They’re not just on a shelf somewhere. Suppliers need to go to a factory and have it manufactured,” Muna said.
Contractor Mitsubishi Heavy Industry is getting parts from Japan while contractor Man Diesel is ordering parts from Germany.
“We’ve got parts from MHI coming in in the latter part of June. We’ve got parts coming in from Man Diesel in mid-July,” Muna said.
The parts, he said, are for engines number 1 and 7 at Power Plant 1 in Lower Base.
He believes there will also be parts for engines 4, 5, 6, and 8 on these same shipments.
Muna earlier disclosed that rolling blackouts are expected to hit Saipan until July or August as maintenance dates on engines 1 and 7 have been pushed back.
He lso apologized to the public for announcing last month that the outages would end in June 2008.
