Recent power outages have been caused by faulty transmission equipment and not a lack of power generation, according to Commonwealth Utilities Corp. executive director Antonio Muna. <\/p>\n
Some of the hardware that is supposed to isolate areas when an outage occurs is old and exposed to the elements, therefore not working properly, Muna said. The wind is also a factor in the distribution failure. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo we need to go out there and change the equipment that\u2019s faulty and ensure that when problems occur in transmission and distribution it\u2019s not finding its way back to the plant,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Muna compared the current situation to a breaker in a house tripping, stopping power from going to that particular area of the house. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s happening is out here that particular breaker that\u2019s supposed to open to isolate the problem is not happening,\u201d he added. \u201cInstead of just isolating that particular area, it\u2019s taking down the power of the entire house. We need to ensure components necessary to isolate are there and won\u2019t find itself going all the way back to the plant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Muna said CUC has ordered its annual parts inventory, totaling around half a million dollars. Within that half million should be components to help with the transmission and distribution problems, he said. <\/p>\n
Due to a lack of power generation last summer, Saipan was experiencing prolonged brownouts and blackouts. Since September, CUC has been renting emergency generators, adding 15 megawatts of power to the system to help meet the daily island demand. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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