Wind energy proposal may relieve CUC woes

A proposal issued by local zoning officials Monday could give consumers significant relief from skyrocketing electricity rates by paving the way for homes and businesses to get power through wind energy turbines.

The recent spike in Commonwealth Utilities Corp. electricity rates has forced consumers to take sometimes drastic steps to conserve energy or face mounting bills, a problem that has prompted many businesses to cut costs or reduce hours of operation to cope.

Responding to the high cost of power, zoning administrator Steve Tilley on Monday released a series of proposed rules to let consumers erect relatively small wind turbines for generating power off CUC’s grid. Tilley said zoning officials have seen rising interest in wind energy projects since the commencement of CUC’s rate change but the government needs to approve regulations for them before consumers can put them in place.

The proposed regulations come after Gov. Benigno Fitial last year signed legislation granting consumers power to the install home-based energy systems like solar panels and wind turbines. Proponents of alternative energy, however, have seen slow progress since then because regulations based on the new law have yet to be finalized.

Nevertheless, the CUC rate hike is giving consumers a greater incentive to look to the skies for energy, according to James Thomas, manager of Wind Sock Inc., a Saipan-based company poised to market wind turbines locally.

“Everybody needs to know the bottom line and bare facts that the power situation on Saipan is not going to go back to the way it was,” Thomas said. “CUC prices aren’t going down.”

The breed of wind energy turbines Thomas hopes to see on the island in the future—supplementing the energy supplied through the normal power grid—could give consumers a cost savings. When power in a building is shut off, he noted, the electricity generated through a turbine can even roll back the CUC meter, reducing power bills. The turbines are also much sleeker and quieter than older types of wind power technology.

The zoning proposal would regulate a host of factors entailed in the use of wind energy such as noise levels, the height of wind towers, maintenance standards and safety rules.

“The board understands that wind energy systems can provide lower-cost power for homeowners, small businesses and for commercial power production,” Tilley said in a statement. “The board wants to provide basic guidance to ensure that small and large wind energy systems are safe and compatible with the neighborhoods where they are installed.”

The CNMI Zoning Board will hold a public hearing on the proposal soon. Details on the hearing have yet to be announced.