Abe Utu Malae, CUC assistant executive director for operations, yesterday said they are focusing on the restoration effort for the primary or high tension lines.
After that, CUC linemen will address the laterals and then the service drops to individual homes, he added.
“More important than the speed of restoration is the safety of the linecrews, especially since they are working at night. The number of hours they work is limited in order to avoid fatigue.”
Malae said the CUC linecrews continue to work 12-hour shifts in order to restore power to customers.
As of yesterday noon, CUC operation manager for power and spokesman Gary P. Camacho estimated that their restoration effort was 90 percent complete.
CUC is yet to come up with an estimate of the damage to its facilities as the assessment is still ongoing.
But Camacho said they did not encounter any problem with their equipment responding to the restoration process.
There were approximately 80 families without electricity service during Typhoon Choi-Wan.
Forty remained without power as of Tuesday afternoon.
Malae said Feeders 4 and 7 suffered the greatest damage. These include Lower Base, Sadog Tasi, Capitol Hill, I-Denni, As Teo, Papago, Tanapag, Achugao, San Roque and As Matuis.
“Fortunately, Saipan did not suffer a direct hit from the typhoon or we would be looking at weeks to recover,” he added.
Malae is urging customers who have been inadvertently overlooked to call CUC’s control center at 235-0282 or -2282.
The customer must state his or her name, location of the outage, telephone number and any extenuating circumstances such as a family member on life support.
“CUC is thankful for the patience and understanding of our customers,” Malae said.
