He added, “This is part of disaster planning.”
The Variety obtained a copy of a letter from Malae to one of the government agencies invited to the meeting held on April 7 at the CUC office.
In his letter, Malae said CUC is “formulating an emergency contingency plan in case of an island-wide rolling blackout.”
He said this would result “if CUC is unable to purchase sufficient fuel….”
According to Malae’s letter, “fuel cost is approaching the 2008 peak and it accounts for 80 percent of total power expenditures.”
He said CUC “does not have the ability to borrow further to buy fuel and is doing everything possible to bill, collect and maintain service, and hopes not to run out of fuel.”
Malae, in an interview yesterday, said it is good to plan for a rolling blackout.
“If CUC runs out of fuel because we ran out of cash, then we should have a plan ready to implement. For example, it is important for an agency to know how long it can use its standby generator or how much fuel would cost,” he said.
CUC on Monday said it has yet to collect $5.8 million from the CNMI government. It is asking Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission to approve a power rate hike that will take effect this May.
If the increase is approved, a residential user of 500 kwh will pay $34.03 more each month for power while a commercial user will see an increase of $159.41 each month for 2,000 kwh, and $317.43 for 4,000 kwh.
