By Gemma Q. Casas
Variety News Staff

GARAPAN district, the center of business activities on Saipan, lost power for nearly three hours yesterday because Shell Marianas failed to deliver lube oil on time to the Commonwealth Utilities Corp., according to CUC spokeswoman Pamela Mathis.
The unannounced power outage was isolated to a small area in Garapan but by 10:25 a.m. the entire Garapan feeder had tripped off.
CUC managed to partially restore the area’s power by 12:15 p.m. and a minute before 1 p.m. the entire area had its power back on.
Mathis said power plant 2 could not run one of its engines because there was no lube oil.
“We could not run it because we didn’t have lube oil…. Shell apparently did not have it in stock,” said Mathis, adding that Shell’s latest lube oil shipment arrived at the seaport over the weekend, and it was able to deliver CUC’s lube oil orders by 12 noon yesterday.
Although CUC has lube oil in stock for power plants 1 and 4, it is not compatible with the small power engines at power plant 2.
In related news, the 13-megawatt engine no. 5 at power plant 1, the main source of electricity in Saipan, remains down.
Mathis said they expect replacement parts for the troubled engine to arrive today from Singapore.
The parts were expected to arrive as early as last week but the shipment was delayed by “some type of international holiday.”
The antiquated engine hasn’t been running for more than a week after it was contaminated with water.
Large customers hooked up to CUC’s main grid such as big garment factories and hotels were asked to provide their own electricity using their standby generators to ensure that the public gets enough electricity pending completion of the repair work on engine no. 5.
Apart from Garapan, the villages of Tanapag and Chinatown also lost power during separate periods yesterday.
Tanapag lost its power from 2 p.m. until 3:20 p.m. because CUC shut down its three big engines at power plant 1 because of overheating.
Chinatown and parts of Miha Housing also lost their power due to a shortage of electricity produced by CUC.
But all the affected areas had their power restored on the same day.
Mathis said the community can help stabilize the power supply on Saipan by conserving energy, especially this summer.
She said energy conservation will not only save on electric bills but also help CUC maximize the electricity it generates.