Taotao Tano president Gregorio S. Cruz Jr. yesterday said Muna is doing everything “to put all solutions in place and address the worsening power crisis on island that has already affected the tourism industry and the businesses.”
“We are in a critical situation and we must look forward for the improvement of the power facilities,” Cruz said, adding that whatever fault CUC committed in the past should be corrected.
He also asked Telesource on Tinian if it can augment Saipan’s power supply with the company’s back-up engines.
Under its contract with CUC, Telesource operates Tinian’s power plant.
Cruz said Muna “was pushed to the wall” and he has no other resort but to get the service of Aggreko International Project Ltd to establish a temporary power plant on Saipan.
“We have no other choice but to help Muna,” Cruz said who was very critical with CUC’s transactions with private contractors for the repair and rehabilitation of its power plants.
Cruz said he will continue to question CUC’s contract with the Commonwealth Industrial Supply Co. (See story on page 9)
Muna, in his e-mail to Cruz, said the power problem on Saipan will be eliminated once the generating power of Aggreko is set up on island.
CUC also wants to bring Power Plant 2 back on line as reserve to maintain continuous load, Muna said.
“If Aggreko’s 15 megawatts can immediately fix this critical problem then let’s accept it and bring it in as soon as possible,” Cruz said. “We can all sit on the sidelines and continue to address the mismanagement but it’s not going to fix the crisis we face right now.”
Last week, CUC announced an emergency request for proposal for the overhaul of engines 5 and 7 which is essential for the completion of what DCM Group had started at Power Plant 1, Muna told Cruz.
He clarified that engine 5 and 7 do not have foundation problems.
“When we get engines 5 & 7 up then we will not have extend Aggreko beyond 12 months period,” Muna said.
Cruz said CUC can focus on the repair of the cracked foundation of engines 6 and 8 of Power Plant 2 once Aggreko operates its temporary power plant.
“All of us can agree that there’s a huge mismanagement with CUC but right now we are in a crisis,” he added. “The public, consumers can no longer withstand this entire chaos of constant rolling blackouts. The general well-being of the people in our homeland are at great risk in terms of public safety, public health and public services.”
