By Bryan Manabat
[email protected]
Variety News Staff
SAIPAN experienced another islandwide power outage Thursday morning at around 7:12 a.m., which lasted about four hours. According to the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation, the outage was caused by an “auto‑trip.”
An auto‑trip is an automatic protective shutdown triggered when a power plant’s control or relay system detects an abnormal or unsafe condition.
By 9:06 a.m., power had been restored to Kiya 3‑1st partial (Chalan Kiya, Chalan Laulau, Quarter Master, and Lower Gualo Rai) and Kiya 4‑1st partial (Intersection of Middle Road and Chalan Monsignor Guerrero, Oleai, Oleai Elementary School, Faligula, Saipan Mayor’s Office, Ada Gym).
By 9:14 a.m., power had been restored to Kiya 3 (Gualo Rai, As Falipe, Sugar King, Chinatown, J’s Bowling, Beach Road to Haraguchi Building, and the southern parts of Garapan).
At around 11 a.m., the CNMI Public School System notified stakeholders that power had been restored at all Saipan campuses, adding that schools would remain open and continue their regular schedules for the remainder of the day.
On Feb. 6, Saipan also experienced an islandwide power outage at around 1:45 p.m., leaving residents and businesses without electricity for several hours. Power was fully restored by 6 p.m.
CUC Executive Director Kevin Watson said the Feb. 6 outage was caused by the overloading of Transformer 1 and Transformer 2 at Power Plant 1 after switching and transferring loads from one feeder to another, as indicated in Transmission & Distribution’s switching procedures.
“The timing of the switching occurred during peak usage hours,” Watson said. “The overload tripped the circuit breaker on overcurrent, simultaneously tripping all of the Kiya feeders. The sudden drop of the loads caused Diesel Engines 2, 4, and 7 to overspeed and trip, resulting in an island‑wide outage. The Aggreko‑leased engines tripped instantly.”
CUC has also issued a notice of an islandwide power interruption from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 19, on Tinian “to allow CUC power crews to safely de‑energize Feeder 3 for the Tinian Divert Airfield Project.”
Bryan Manabat was a liberal arts student of Northern Marianas College where he also studied criminal justice. He is the recipient of the NMI Humanities Award as an Outstanding Teacher (Non-Classroom) in 2013, and has worked for the CNMI Motheread/Fatheread Literacy Program as lead facilitator.
