CISCO back to repairing engines at power plant

The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. has been working again with the Commonwealth Industrial Supply Co. Inc. to repair the six engines at Power Plant 2 in Lower Base.

CUC executive director Antonio Muña told Saipan Tribune that power engines 1 and 6 at Power Plant 2 have been producing at least four megawatts since last week after CISCO went back to work on them.

“We revisited the contract and right now we’re working with them to get the promised eight megawatts from Power Plant 2 as per the initial contract,” Muna said.

He said this is a negotiated process.

CUC hired CISCO in 2006 to fix six engines at Power Plant 2. The utility agency signed the contract with CUC without soliciting bids or proposals from any other company. Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez approved the contract on May 14, 2006, according to the governor’s state of emergency declaration.

The plan was to rehabilitate Power Plant 2 engines so as to allow power engines at Power Plant 1 to be shut down for overhauls.

In July 2008, it was reported that CISCO’s work was suspended as only one engine was repaired.

Muña earlier disclosed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Office of the Public Auditor have been looking into the contracting arrangement between CUC and CISCO.

The FBI is reportedly involved in the probe because the $885,000 used to pay CISCO came from the federal government.

In an interview with Saipan Tribune early this week, Muña said CUC was not aggressive in pursuing the warranty issues with what they expected CISCO to deliver.

“But we also found there are certain deliverables that we are still confirming in the process from CISCO. So in that whole process there may have been some issues with CUC on one side, there are also some issues on CISCO’s side,” he said.

The executive director expressed hope that, as they work out their concerns with each other with respect to how the contract was supposed to be completed and what deliverables were supposed to have been realized, they will now get eight megawatts from Power Plant 2.

Muña said looking at the issue with the contract actually is about ascertaining what deliverables were supposed to be realized from CISCO and compared to what was realized.

“In that whole process, we determined that it allows us to go back to the table again, move that to revisit the plant,” he said.

Muña said it’s been a few weeks now or about 30 days when CISCO started working on engine no. 1 at Power Plant 2.