The cost to provide power to Rota exceeds the amount billed to its residents, he added.
CUC spent $1,680,311 for diesel oil and $58,064 for lubricants in fiscal year 2010 to provide power on Rota, he said.
In December, Rota power plant burned about $240,000 worth of diesel fuel and lubes, he added.
According to Malae, power ratepayers were billed a total of $240,000.
The non-fuel costs were about $50,000.
“Therefore, as you can see, Rota operated at a loss of at least $50,000 on the power side [in December],” he said.
But this amount was “small” compared to the losses CUC incurred before July 2010 when it had to operate an inefficient power plant and purchase expensive electricity from an independent power producer, Malae said.
On Tinian, Telesource CNMI Inc. operates the power plant but CUC pays for the fuel, he added.
He said Telesource is paying for the lube oil.
In FY 2010, the Tinian power plant used 2,461,393 gallons of fuel for an average of 205,000 gallons per month.
Malae said the total cost for the amount of fuel used by the Tinian power plant in FY 2010 was $5,735,574.62, or an average of $561,000 per month.
In December, the Tinian power plant burned about $600,000 worth of diesel oil.
“The non-fuel cost was about $220,000. A total of $720,000 was billed to the Tinian customers. Therefore, as you can see, Tinian operated at a loss on the power side of at least $100,000 [in December],” he said.
