CUC, he added, has no personnel who can repair the underground cables.
“I’m worried about the underground cables between the power plant and substation,” he said.
On Monday night, Malae said they had to pull out a team of industrial electricians from the power plant and the power distribution crew to repair the substation.
The team replaced one of the twelve 13.8-kilovolt “termination cables” that exploded, tripping off three feeders from the Kiya substation.
“We don’t have skilled workers in this particular area,” Malae said, referring to the substation and underground line work.
CUC, he said, can only regularly check and inspect the equipment but they need to train people who can do maintenance job.
There are parts that need replacement every month, while others have to be replaced every six months or once a year, he said.
According to Malae, CUC is looking for a distribution engineer, preferably U.S.-trained, to oversee transmission and distribution operations.
He said CUC continues to look for skilled workers.
“It’s very hard to find people unless we go to Metro Manila,” he added.
Malae said they have asked Harry “Spike” Speicher, Pacific Lineman Training director, to get a skilled worker from American Samoa.
Speicher, who has been training CUC personnel on basic lineman operations and hotwire work, will also conduct training on underground line operation.
