Power Plant 1 down to one power engine
Mechanical problems on three engines at Power Plant 1 left the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. with only one engine running at the plant, resulting in more outages on Saipan yesterday
In a statement, CUC said that Engines No. 2, 6 and 8 at Power Plant 1 experienced some mechanical problems, forcing the agency to expand the previously announced load shedding schedule to include other areas of the electrical grid not previously scheduled.
“As a result of the three engines offline, Power Plant 1 was only generating power from one unit, therefore requiring CUC to implement extensive load shedding throughout the day,” said CUC in the statement.
CUC said that at 8:36am yesterday, engine No. 8 was secured to perform exhaust valve replacement on cylinder No.5. Repair work on this unit is expected to be completed late afternoon today.
“Engine No. 6 requires cylinder head assembly, water pump bearing and lube oil purifier replacements, which are expected to be completed late [yesterday] afternoon,” said the agency.
With the completion of the repairs on engines No. 2 and 6, CUC would be able to produce 10 megawatts and the previously promulgated load-shedding schedule for Aug. 5 – 8 will go into effect again, it said. [B][I](Saipan Tribune)[/I][/B]