Betty Terlaje
“WE are storm ready — as prepared as we can be,” Commonwealth Utilities Corporation acting Executive Director Betty Terlaje said in a media briefing on Tuesday afternoon as Typhoon Bolaven was heading to the Marianas.
“We have done all the protocols to get ourselves ready for this natural disaster,” she added. “We have the crew, we got the materials, we have the equipment, and we can get more equipment in as needed in Rota, Tinian and Saipan.”
Immediately following the storm, CUC’s line crew will hit the ground and clear all the roadways for emergency vehicles and frontliners, Terlaje said.
“CUC’s priority is how to restore power, and the restoration efforts are focused on the priority areas like the hospital, clinics, water wells, shelters, emergency facilities, and other areas,” she added.
Asked about the power generator at Rota Resort and whether it can be used as a back-up power source on the island, Terlaje said, “Should the loan engine at the CUC Rota power plant go down, the immediate back up is to see if the Rota Resort generator can be up and running…. We sent our electrical engineers, and they found an underground cable that appeared to be cut. The good news was that late Monday, the engineering crew were able to confirm that the cable was not cut. That would have been a big issue to that plan.”
She added, “It would take time to run a test…so that is still an immediate backup solution. Another piece of good news: the parts needed for the second power plant unit have arrived on Rota [Monday]. Unfortunately, the mechanic that was supposed to fly today [Tuesday] cannot make it obviously due to the storm and flight cancellations. But he is on standby [and] once the repair work is done, it would take maybe a day or two before the power unit will be back up.”
As for water and power service interruptions on Saipan, Terlaje said, “Those are not storm related.”
She said the water service interruptions in San Roque, Achugao, Tanapag and portions of Lower Base were to allow the water crew to repair a pipeline in the area.
“For small leaks we try not to turn the water off, but when they are big, we turn the water off so that the water crew can go in and repair without water gushing out. We want to make it easier for them to do what they need to do. The repair was necessary so that the tank does not empty out,” Terlaje said.
As for power outages on Monday night in Koblerville, Chalan Kanoa and other areas, Terlaje said one of the generators of the main power plant experienced a minor issue.
“The crew needed to repair that so it would not affect the engine for the longer term. We were advised that they would turn off Kiyu 2, which covers Chalan Kanoa, Koblerville, and As Lito areas. Kiyu 2 went down, and the crew tried to put it back up within an hour, but the repair work showed that it needed more repair, so they took it back down again and finished the repairs — that was the reason for that [power outage],” Terlaje said.
“Today they are going to complete some of the repairs on the backup power plant to be able to get additional megawatt capacity so that if the engine experiences something like this during the storm, they are ready to power up Power Plant 4 or 2,” she added.
