{"id":221941,"date":"2016-03-01T06:00:36","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T20:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=221941"},"modified":"2016-03-01T06:00:36","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T20:00:36","slug":"cuc-board-delays-action-on-irp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/cuc-board-delays-action-on-irp\/","title":{"rendered":"CUC board delays action on IRP"},"content":{"rendered":"
The majority of the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. board of directors opted to delay their decision on its Integrated Resource Plan during their special board meeting last Saturday. The board instead wanted to renegotiate their $371 million contract with Mobil. (Frauleine Villanueva-Dizon)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The majority of the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. board of directors has opted to delay its decision on the company\u2019s Integrated Resource Plan that has been in the works since 2014\u2014leaving CUC without a plan to present to the Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission on April regarding their resource plan.<\/p>\n

During their special meeting on Saturday, prior to discussion in executive session, CUC legal counsel James Sirok reminded the board to finalize the IRP. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to finalize the IRP today so we can get that taken care of,\u201d Sirok said.<\/p>\n

CUC has been developing the IRP with their consultant\u2014Leidos Engineering LLC whom they paid $495,000 for its services\u2014to choose feasible, cost-effective, and reliable resources for their power generation. <\/p>\n

Coming out after more than one hour of closed-door discussion, director David Sablan immediately made a motion for the board to approve Case No. 12 in the presentation provided them, which will include \u201c10-megawatts of photovoltaic power and pursuing light fuel oil diesel engines that can be converted to liquefied natural gas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would motion that we approve that as a priority process in the IRP and so that will allow our engineers to work on that as a priority,\u201d Sablan said.<\/p>\n

Nobody from the board wanted to second Sablan\u2019s motion, but after Sablan said that someone just second the motion so that they could vote on it, Torres did.<\/p>\n

However, the majority of the board did not want to take action on the IRP even as CUC\u2019s almost 40-year-old power infrastructure is continuing to depreciate as days go by. <\/p>\n

Currently, CUC\u2019s assets are more than 70 percent depreciated. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am under the impression that we don\u2019t have to approve the IRP at this point,\u201d vice chair Eric San Nicolas said.<\/p>\n

San Nicolas argued that there are \u201cother avenues\u201d to address the power plant issue, which he would later on make a motion on. <\/p>\n

Sablan disagreed with San Nicolas\u2019 opinion, saying that if they are to take a different route, \u201cWhy did we have Leidos do this all then for the past year plus?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat vice chair San Nicolas is suggesting that we just put that off to the side and do something different,\u201d Sablan said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are bidders that are waiting for a decision on our part on whether they are going to get an award, and so that they can move forward. The engineers are waiting for some direction from us, we need to give it to them,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Sablan argued that Leidos is smarter than the board with regards to power generation and should therefore consider their recommendations.<\/p>\n

However, Sablan\u2019s motion failed after San Nicolas, Albert Taitano, and Joe Torres voted no and chair Adelina Roberto and Ignacio Perez abstained. <\/p>\n

Renegotiate with Mobil<\/strong>
\nSan Nicolas then made a motion to direct management and the legal counsel to \u201cinvite Mobil back to the negotiation table to potentially re-negotiate a potential change order on the $371-million contract that was signed in March 2014.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see if we can negotiate the length of the contract, the amount of the contract possibly reduction to compensate or incorporate anywhere from $10 million to $30 million to purchase generators for the power plant so that it is included within the $371 million,\u201d San Nicolas said.<\/p>\n

This was opposed by Sablan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re mixing generators and oil here. It just doesn\u2019t make sense to go back to Mobil to ask them to consider a reduction or something. I don\u2019t know what it is that vice chair San Nicolas is proposing but I\u2019m telling you it\u2019s convoluted. Secondly, what are we going to do with those bidders then that participated in the RFP and providing us resource for the Integrated Resource Plan? Are we going to tell them now to go fly a kite?\u201d Sablan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is completely irresponsible. I must say that for the record,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Sablan noted that the bidders, that took part in their requests for proposals in November 2014, would have to be addressed.<\/p>\n

However, Sirok commented that the RFP that was published under the IRP process \u201chas already went through the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

To which Sablan responded, \u201cWhy are we discussing all these things in executive session then? The reason being that all those bids are still active, right Jim?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sirok did not provide an answer to this, but responded, \u201cWell I think you have a good discussion but I think it\u2019s, uh, we are in the middle of a discussion on the motion on a different subject and so let\u2019s finish with this particular motion on Mobil.\u201d<\/p>\n

The majority of the board then proceeded to vote yes on San Nicolas\u2019 motion.<\/p>\n

\u2018Doesn\u2019t seem important\u2019<\/strong>
\nAfter the motion passed, Sablan commented to his colleagues, enumerating the many things that they need to address such as the amount of repairs that the power generation side has been needing and CUC\u2019s low reserve capacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of things that I\u2019ve been saying about what needs to be addressed in the utility and apparently it doesn\u2019t seem to sink in,\u201d Sablan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese doesn\u2019t seem to be important to you folks,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The comment made San Nicolas interrupt Sablan, saying that he is \u201cout of line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taitano also commented on Sablan, starting with \u201cwith all due respect,\u201d but then proceeded to speak in Chamorro.<\/p>\n

Roberto stopped what potentially could be a heated argument. <\/p>\n

Asked what would happen to the IRP, Roberto said the matter is \u201ctabled.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just we haven\u2019t decided yet. We need to address other issues first. We don\u2019t even know what\u2019s there other than what they presented to us,\u201d Roberto said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The majority of the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. board of directors has opted to delay its…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":221948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,1421,4568,50],"class_list":["post-221941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cuc","tag-eric-san-nicolas","tag-irp","tag-power"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}