A power outage lasting seven hours Tuesday (March 10) affected some areas in Koror State specifically in T-Dock, some area in Ngerbeched, Medalii ,Malakal and Meyuns.
Isechal said that at about 9:30 a.m., March 10 , a circuit breaker at the Malakal power plant got burned out. It took the PPUC crew at more than six hours to restore electricity in affected areas. The power outage was unscheduled.Kione Isechal, Chairman of the PPUC board of directors said that although by April , a much improved power supply is expected, the months of April and May will be critical.On Friday, PPUC conducted emergency work to repair and replace exhaust pipe for Engine Unit 3 at the Aimeliik power plant cutting off power in certain areas in Koror which lasted for four hours.“We are not in a comfortable situation right now but we are cautiously upgrading the generators,” Isechal said.Isechal said the engines are 23 years old and the capacity generated by the power plants is almost equivalent to the demand especially if one of the engines has to be shut down for repair.The current capacity is 11.3 megawatt (MW) while the peak load is at 11.6 MW, he said there is a shortfall of .3 MW.To address the shortfall, PPUC has asked establishments like Palasia, Surangel and Sons, Papago to use their own generators.“They will be on their own for a long time,” Isechal said.He said the situation is better, compared to the power crisis in 2006.In 2006, PPUC has to loan $7 million to purchase generators. That money he said was spent for repairs, purchase of two portable generators, generators for outlying states, and rehabilitation of Aimeliik power plant units.Currently, Isechal said the remaining money is $2.3 million.He said they initially planned to use the money to buy 5 megawatt generators, but it is not enough as the generator will cost $10 million.
