Commonwealth Utilities Corp. Executive Director Antonio S. Muna said the transformer breaker opening triggered the power outage that started at 3:45 a.m. Power was restored at 6:31 a.m.
In a press release, Muna said the cause of the breaker opening at the substation “is still being investigated at this time.”
But a power expert, who declined be identified, expressed serious concern about the power situation, saying “there’s something more serious behind the problem that caused the blackout.”
He said if the transformer breaker opens it will not necessarily shutdown the system and cut the power supply.
Besides, he added, the Aggreko generators are supposed to be producing 15 megawatts awhile Power Plant 4, which is operated by Pacific Marine and Industrial Co., generates 12.2 megawatts.
John Ed Onedera, CUC power division technical service chief, admitted to the Variety that they don’t know the cause of the problem.
“Nobody knows what caused it. There’s no indication of what went wrong,” he said.
Yesterday, at around 2 p.m. some areas in Garapan experienced a power outage but Onedera attributed to a “distribution problem — like a transformer burning out.”
Variety learned that of the three engines at Power Plant 1, only Engine 8 before it went down before dawn yesterday.
But one engine of Power Plant that was under periodic complete maintenance was expected to be online yesterday afternoon to generate an additional 2.2 megawatts.
