AT 7:38 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 9, the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. experienced an islandwide power outage on Saipan.
“Engine 6 went down unexpectedly and without warning this morning,” Kevin Watson, CUC executive director, told Variety.
“The demand shifted to engine 3 that could not carry the load, which caused a cascading effect resulting in an islandwide power outage,” he added. “Staff was able to restore power to Feeder 1 that serves the hospital within 30 minutes and continued to restore power to the other feeders systematically and 1 1/2 hours later had restored power islandwide,” Watson said.
He earlier asked the CUC board to declare a state of emergency for power generation for Rota and Saipan.
In a memorandum last week, Watson said: “There is an urgent and escalating risk that CUC may soon be unable to provide continuous and reliable electrical services to the islands of Saipan and Rota due to circumstances beyond our control.”
He said Diesel Engine 1 on Saipan had an emergency shutdown on Sept. 19 due to an engine frame crack causing lube oil leakage.
On Rota, the power plant’s Diesel Engine Cummin #4 experienced “catastrophic” failure on Sept. 13 due to a connecting rod piercing the engine block on both sides of the engine, leading to a crank case explosion.
The CUC board, however, declined to approve Watson’s request and instructed him instead to seek other means to support power generation for the two islands.