By Bryan Manabat
[email protected]
Variety News Staff
SAIPAN has surpassed the halfway mark in restoring power to its primary lines, but recovery efforts are slowing as crews confront material shortages and widespread theft of copper conductors.
The Commonwealth Utilities Corporation said it has shifted all available resources to Kagman, where newly arrived poles and crews from the Guam Power Authority are expected to accelerate long-delayed restoration work.
CUC Power Division electrical engineer Jonathan Camacho said during a press briefing Friday that Saipan is now “a little bit above 50%” energized for all primary and lateral distribution lines, but the pace of restoration has begun to plateau.
“We are now unfortunately hitting our plateau because of stolen conductors,” he said. “We just ran out of materials.”
Camacho said crews have discovered missing spans of triplex service drops and number-four solid copper conductors across the island.
“There are multiple areas on Saipan where our triplex lines are stolen or missing,” he said. “We’re probably exceeding tens of thousands of feet of number-four solid copper missing.”
Despite the setbacks, Camacho said the biggest development this week is in Kagman, where progress had stalled for weeks.
“We finally have power poles that came in — 40 pieces of 45-foot concrete poles,” he said. “That was all assigned to the Kagman area.”
Guam Power Authority has redeployed all of its bucket trucks and crews to Kagman to push the area closer to energization.
“GPA retracted all of their teams, their bucket trucks, just to go there so they can complete as much as they can,” Camacho said. “Within the next day or two, if they’re able to energize that line, we can see the first customers restored in Kagman.”
He said the shift is intended to show residents that the area has not been forgotten.
“I’m pretty sure the residents can see the eight bucket trucks just lined up, stringing everything they can,” he said.
Camacho added that CUC is coordinating with FEMA to expedite shipments of poles and conductors to prevent further delays.
“They’re adamant about expediting a lot of our needs so we can continue restoration,” he said.
Even after GPA’s contract ends, CUC crews will continue restoration work.
“That’s never going to end until everybody’s 100% energized,” Camacho said, adding that CUC will request a contract extension.
Despite the challenges, Camacho said Saipan’s power plants remain stable.
“Our peak load is 18.5 megawatts,” he said, compared to pre-storm consumption levels of 33 to 38 megawatts.
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.
