By Emmanuel T. Erediano
Variety News Staff

A PROBLEM with electrical wiring at the Lower Base power plant caused an hour-long power outage in Garapan and a stretch of Beach Road all the way to San Jose yesterday.
Power went out at around 1:30 p.m., at the 5.5-megawatt distribution grid called Feeder 2, according to Commonwealth Utilities Corporation spokeswoman Pamela Mathis.
The unannounced power outage occurred suddenly, she said.
Mathis said there were some problems with the electrical control panel that measures the engine speed.
There was also a problem with the alarm on engine number five at power plant 1 in Lower Base that went off causing the engine to automatically shut down.
She said she was informed later that the alarm went off because one of the electrical wires connected to the engine’s oil system malfunctioned.
Power plant personnel were able to restart the engine after fixing the wires, and power was restored at around 2:50 p.m. in Garapan and 2:58 p.m. along the rest of Beach Road all the way to Msgr Guerrero Road in San Jose.
This is the fourth power outage that has occurred on Saipan this year.
Two of the outages, however, were announced when CUC had to replace some of its power poles.