The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. completed last Thursday the signing of a $1.5-million 90-day contract for a temporary electric power supply with Aggreko while CUC\u2019s generator engines are down for overhaul and repair.<\/p>\n
CUC put out a competitive advertisement for the emergency power supply and a CUC committee\u2014which included a lawyer from the Office of the Attorney General\u2014selected Aggreko as the winning bidder for the project, according to CUC executive director Gary P. Camacho yesterday<\/p>\n
He said the contract had been routed and signed and CUC\u2019s technical staff are now working with Aggreko to prepare for the power equipment to arrive. Those power generators will be positioned adjacent to CUC\u2019s Power Plant 1 in Lower Base in order to connect them to CUC\u2019s fuel supply.<\/p>\n
Camacho said the contract is for $1,516,320. He said the people they have been dealing with are Aggreko representatives from Singapore.<\/p>\n
He said the temporary generators are supposed to generate 12 megawatts to meet the island\u2019s power demand, but Aggreko will be bringing in equipment to generate approximately 15 megawatts so that there will be a power reserve on standby.<\/p>\n
Under the contract, Aggreko is expected to start producing power by Jan. 15, 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just to get us by while we overhaul [our] engines,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want to make sure that we try not to impact our community\u2026in trying to have that reserve capacity when we shut down our engines.\u201d <\/p>\n
He said the overhaul on CUC\u2019s engines are different this time due to the impacts of Super Typhoon Yutu that hit Saipan and Tinian in October 2018. That has resulted in limited revenue for CUC, especially in the first quarter and even in the second quarter of the year.<\/p>\n
Camacho said they have received some funding that allows them to sustain their operation throughout the remainder of the current fiscal year. However, it\u2019s been extremely challenging due to the lack of payment from some of the large outstanding accounts, he said. He said this lack of payments from large accounts has impacted CUC\u2019s ability to perform overhauls. <\/p>\n
Camacho said they had to work closely with the CUC board in releasing some of the amount in a restricted account that was earmarked to buy a new engine to replace Engine No. 8.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to deal with the existing engines today and ensure that they\u2019re overhauled and prepared to continue until such time [when] we acquire new engines,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Camacho said the ongoing repair of Engine No. 6 is expected to be finished next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, with (Engine No. 6) coming online, we have still No. 5 down,\u201d said Camacho, adding that they have been bidding out engine overhaul for No. 5.<\/p>\n
He said No. 5 will go down first and then No. 7. \u201cHopefully, we can come out sometime over the course of the next five, six months with the engine overhauls,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Camacho said they will then try to do the internal overhaul on the smaller engines. \u201cThese large engines\u2014the 11 megawatt units\u2014are very difficult to take offline without greatly impacting our reserve capacity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Last month, CUC board authorized the release of $6 million from CUC\u2019s $12 million that is in a restricted account for the emergency repair and overhaul of power engines at Power Plant 1 and to pay for a temporary electric power supply that will be used while the engines are down for repair and overhaul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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