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CUC said to owe PMIC $1.6 million
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Posted on Jun 25 2008
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. is in arrears and reportedly owes $1.6 million to the private company that operates Power Plant 4 in Puerto Rico, Saipan.
Pacific Marine and Industrial Corp. general manager Narciso Paradela said yesterday the utility agency has yet to pay PMIC $1,627,515.15 for four and a half months, including the June 1-15, 2008 billing.
Paradela told Saipan Tribune they are billing CUC bi-monthly on the basis of the kilowatt-hours it exports to the utility agency.
“We are proud to say that we have an almost 100 percent availability,” he said.
From time to time, though, they schedule a shutdown of a unit for preventive maintenance. “Except for these maintenance, our units here are continuously running,” he stressed.
Paradela cited that during Thursday night’s islandwide outage, they were on in-house load and were isolated from the power distribution system.
At that time, he said, they waited for three hours for Power Plant 1 in Lower Base to be ready to receive power so it could run the plant.
Power Plant 4 has reportedly been saving Saipan’s electric power distribution in the middle of malfunctions and current repairs on power engines at CUC’s main power plants.
CUC executive director Antonio Muna earlier said the PMIC-operated Power Plant 4 is a key component in the power distribution system, delivering over 30 percent of the island’s power needs.
“Without Power Plant 4 stepping up to the plate, I think our situation would probably be graver as a result,” said Muna, who described Power Plant 4’s services as “very reliable.”
Paradela said their power plant has a total nameplate capability of 16.6 megawatts and a firm capability of 14.6 MW.
Power Plant 4 has nine power engines. Although Engine Unit No. 1 is still in its foundation, it has already been replaced with Unit No. 10 in December 2005.
Paradela said their contractual obligation to CUC is only 10.1 MW, but at present they are supplying 14.4 to 14.6 MW due to CUC’s supply shortage.
CUC’s contract with PMIC was renewed in 2006 for another 10 years.
