By Bryan Manabat
[email protected]
Variety News Staff
WIDESPREAD theft of copper conductors is slowing Saipan’s power restoration, CUC Power Division electrical engineer Jonathan Camacho said at a press briefing Friday, warning that crews are now encountering entire spans of missing lines across multiple villages.
“There are multiple areas on Saipan where our triplex — the service drop lines from the transformers down to the weatherheads — has been stolen or is missing,” Camacho said. “We have a lot of transformers that are usable, but we can’t energize customers on those transformers because we’re now missing the conductors.”
Camacho said the problem is islandwide and involves both triplex copper and number-four solid copper, the lateral lines used to feed neighborhoods. “We’re probably exceeding tens of thousands of feet of number-four solid copper missing,” he said.
CUC recently received a shipment of replacement copper from Guam Power Authority, but Camacho said all of it must be dedicated to Kagman first because of the lack of progress there in recent weeks.
CUC has reported the stolen copper to the Department of Public Safety and the Attorney General’s Office. Some recovered materials are being held as evidence. “Those conductors cannot be released unless the AG completes its investigation and signs a release,” Camacho said.
He said the thefts are forcing crews to isolate poles and skip spans that cannot be energized, slowing overall progress. “It makes it harder for them because you see a few spans that are ready to go, and then a few more spans are missing,” he said.
Bryan Manabat was a liberal arts student of Northern Marianas College where he also studied criminal justice. He is the recipient of the NMI Humanities Award as an Outstanding Teacher (Non-Classroom) in 2013, and has worked for the CNMI Motheread/Fatheread Literacy Program as lead facilitator.
