Decisions have to made now on how the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. will carry the power demands of the influx of development within the next two years, according to CUC acting executive director Gary Camacho yesterday, as the utility eyes much needed fixes to a damaged power plant engine and aggressive improvements to 30- to 35-year-old facilities.<\/p>\n
CUC\u2019s short-term plan\u2014to address problems with Power Plant 1\u2014will ensure that the islands\u2019 continued base load of 75 megawatts is enough to sustain any development and power supply \u201conly until 2017.\u201d<\/p>\n
This, though, is based on project chart details provided to the Senate for development plans throughout 2015 to 2016 that could vary and change on how development plans play out.<\/p>\n
The projects include construction or renovation at the Kensington Hotel Saipan, Grand Mariana Casino and Hotel Resort, Honest Profit Saipan Resort Hotel, Ocean Vista Resort, Tinian Ocean View Resort Casino, Plumeria Resort (Tinian), Surfrider Resort and Spa and Beach Club, HS Lee Commercial Building, Villora Condotel Residence, Saipan Comfort Homes, Rota Municipal Dump, Kanadan Magpo Homestead (Tinian), and the Beach Road Route 33 Improvement Project.<\/p>\n
Led by Sen. Arnold Palacios (R-Saipan), the Senate called on the first agency in a series of hearings with permitting agencies to ask how the CNMI government will grapple with projects the Senate believes will be of \u201cmonumental adverse impact\u201d to the existing infrastructure and the environment.<\/p>\n
CUC presented a \u201csystem improvements to facilitate CNMI project developments\u201d plan yesterday, as called on by the Senate committee on in earlier letters to CUC, the Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality, and the Department of Public Works. <\/p>\n
DPW and BECQ will answer to the Senate today at a 9am meeting.<\/p>\n
Palacios wants answers on how the six or seven major developments on the drawing board or permitted under the Coastal Resource Management \u201cumbrella\u201d major siting permit, signed off on by regulatory agencies for island projects, will affect the island.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to make sure we are appraised of the present state of different infrastructure of the Commonwealth,\u201d said Palacios, in his opening remarks yesterday. Palacios wants to know \u201cif agencies have the capacity\u201d to carry on demands \u201cwithout adverse impacts\u201d or if they need \u201cimprovements\u201d to increase power, water, or wastewater demands.<\/p>\n
Sen. Sixto Igisomar (R-Saipan), for his part, stressed an apparent lack of communication between agencies and a lack of networking, as the detailed in CUC\u2019s report.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope we are able to communicate or dialogue today,\u201d said Igisomar said, and \u201cset the story straight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking to senators on \u201cvolume\u201d of increased demand in power and water yesterday, Camacho said, \u201cThe boom has come at a rapid pace.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAn entire power system improvement and expansion in distribution and hardware size is the solution to this concern,\u201d Camacho said during his presentation.<\/p>\n
As more developments come on board on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota, Camacho said, \u201ceven more problems arise\u201d and CUC\u2019s capacity has to be increased.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnderstand too that the number of these facilities are aged so in some point in the future would have to be replaced,\u201d Camacho said.<\/p>\n
Camacho said reserves has been adequate, but is a costly aspect of their program.<\/p>\n
CUC has four power plants on Saipan, and one each on Rota and Tinian. Saipan\u2019s power plant \u201c2\u201d is not operational. <\/p>\n
Saipan has a total capacity of 95.05 megawatt \u201cin design\u201d but has available 56.6 megawatts.<\/p>\n
Peak demand months in previous years were July 25, 2013, were CUC hit 34.7 MW; June 12, 2014, at 34 MW; July 1, 2015, at 36.3 MW. The peak for 2016 is Jan 27 30.7 MW, but CUC acknowledges they did not hit the peak months of July and June yet.<\/p>\n
CUC has 25.7 megawatts in reserve.<\/p>\n
Engine one to four at PP1 put out 6 MW each, but carry design capacity of 7.77. And also due to \u201cage,\u201d engines five to eight can produce 10 MW, out of a design capacity of 13. That\u2019s 48 MW out of intended 81.24 MW, in total.<\/p>\n
\u201cEngine number 8 has severe damage on it\u2026it will take a significant amount of time and cost into the millions to repair that particular unit,\u201d Camacho said.<\/p>\n
PP4 is at peak demand and has a total 14.4 MW capacity but currently has a 8.6 MW reserve, he added.<\/p>\n
The engines on Saipan currently in use are 20 to 35 years old and \u201cincreased maintenance and unreliable parts supply\u201d result from the age these units.<\/p>\n
Engine eight, for one, needs foundation reaper, among others.<\/p>\n
But the engine\u2019s original equipment manufacture, Camacho said is unable to supply the parts before 16 months, with a commission schedule over 24 months, or \u201ctwo years if we were try to repair that unit.\u201d<\/p>\n
CUC needs a short-and-long-term plan, Camacho.<\/p>\n
Short-term would be to conduct major repairs in PP1. And repair and replacement of all existing units \u201cneed to be considered aggressively.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBuying a new unit to deal with\u201d engine number 8 \u201cto deal with existing demands or upcoming short term demands,\u201d Camacho said, \u201cis more efficient\u201d and would be commissioned \u201cwithin nine months rather than the two year repair process for that current engine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDecisions needs to be made now,\u201d Camacho said, citing the length of time to procure engines.<\/p>\n
The short-term plan will ensure that the continued base load of 75 megawatts is enough to sustain any development and power supply only until 2017, this is according to the information provided to BECQ, which they shared to the Senate as a development plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf those plans change then obviously then the timelines change,\u201d Camacho added.<\/p>\n
Tinian also has \u201chuge reserve capacity,\u201d Camacho said.<\/p>\n
But, he added, \u201cthat reserve capacity would almost be nil in six years if the Alter City plans move forward and become realistic. In fact, by the end of their last phase, there will be an additional 10 megawatts required to meet that demand.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is almost \u201czero reserve next year if the plans are correct,\u201d said Camacho. \u201cWe need have to close communication with these developers. When it goes to its last stage, it goes off the charts,\u201d Camacho said, referring to a provided chart on power demands on Tinian. \u201cThis is where we need the additional 10 megawatts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Camacho added it was the \u201csame situation\u201d on Rota. \u201cThey are in good shape,\u201d Camacho said of Rota.<\/p>\n
In the next two years, Camacho said, \u201cWe are only dependent on information provided to CRM\u201d but that they \u201cneed to make decision now\u201d as demands are noweher near what it was two years ago.<\/p>\n
It will come to a \u201cpoint where another power plant is required although there is a 17-megawatt reserve today,\u201d Camacho said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can only do this together,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
On costs\u2014responding to a question from Sen. Frank Cruz (R-Tinian)\u2014Camacho said, per industry standard, it would cost a \u201cmillion dollars a megawatt.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is substantial,\u201d Camacho said.<\/p>\n
Camacho said for long-term plans, this is where CUC \u201cgreatly needs assignee\u201d to move on from a 30 to 35 MW facilities to a new program altogether.<\/p>\n
According to CUC\u2019s PowerPoint presentation yesterday, a \u201clong term plan\u201d\u2014from 2018 to 2040\u2014would require 10 new engines on Saipan for an 80 MW capacity and associated hardware. On Tinian, this would require 20 megawatts, with four 5-megawatt engines. On Rota, they would need 3 megawatts and phase out old units.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Decisions have to made now on how the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. will carry the power…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[880,49,10324,3618],"class_list":["post-223222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","tag-becq","tag-cuc","tag-mw","tag-power-plant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223222","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\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223222\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}