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CUC down to two engines
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Posted on Aug 15 2008
The same day the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. set a timetable with Aggreko International for new generators to arrive on island, the CUC power plant was down to two of four engines.
CUC executive director Antonio Muña said only two of the four engines were running Thursday night, Friday morning and Friday afternoon, causing three-hour rotating outages for the whole island.
With the current state of the engines, there is not much CUC can do to alleviate the situation, Muña said.
“We’ve pushed them so hard, it’s really beyond our control, that’s what we’re observing,” Muña said. “We run them to be quick to react. We hope for the best, but realistically, we realize there is only so much we can do at this point. The best we can do is that if the engines need to be repaired, we bring them back into service as fast as possible.”
Muña said there would be no relief until Sept. 16, when the Aggreko generators are expected to start working.
“We should be able to limp along another 30 days, but beyond that it is not advisable,” he said. “You know the engines are…from what we see…we really need to start resting the engines and not continuously run them on a regular basis.”
The Aggreko generators may allow the engines to rest a bit, although they may still have to be operational, Muña said.
According to Gov. Beningo R. Fitial’s state of disaster emergency for CUC, power plant 1’s engines “will be unable to provide power necessary to meet basic needs of the island and that one or more of its engines is so damaged by wear and lack of adequate maintenance for many years that is may experience a catastrophic failure.”
Muna said the state of emergency was necessary to expedite the arrival of the Aggreko generators. With the declaration, CUC was able to circumvent the Public Utilities Commission’s requirement of obtaining a certificate of public convenience or necessity, and sign the contract with Aggreko.
Muna said he agrees that without additional resources in the next 30 days, CUC could experience a catastrophic situation.
The engines are experiencing further breakdown and wear and tear, he said. Metal fragmentations could cause potential problems, he added.
