“As of Wednesday, we made a decision that it’s not necessary for CUC to extend Aggreko’s contract,”Wallon Young, the deputy director for power generation of CUC, said during the governor’s weekly press briefing.
CUC has been leasing Aggreko’s 15 megawatts containerized generators since September last year for $504,000 a month.
With Aggreko partially providing electricity for Saipan, CUC managed to have its old power engines repaired using federal funds.
Aggreko was hired after Saipan experienced extreme long hours of blackouts almost daily mainly because the engines at the government-owned power plants were not functioning anymore.
Power plant 1, the main source of electricity on Saipan has eight engines, but only two or three were running last year.
This month, CUC said it can produce as much as 43 megawatts with 15 megawatts from Aggreko.
By September, CUC Executive Director Antonio Muna said their power plants on Saipan can produce a combined energy of 55 megawatts with 15 megawatts reserve.
Muna said the money paid to Aggreko will be used for the maintenance of the power engines.
He said there are also exploratory studies to use the funds to provide the public with lower power rates.
