By Bryan Manabat
[email protected]
Variety News Staff
A TENSE exchange occurred between CPUC Vice Chair Jack Angello and CUC board legal counsel Mike Ernest after Angelo said Commonwealth Utilities Corporation personnel handled recent power outages reactively instead of preventively.
The confrontation unfolded during the Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission’s March 13 meeting, where commissioners pressed CUC to explain three islandwide blackouts in February and a series of feeder outages in March.
CUC engineers told the commission that the February outages were caused by load miscalculations, controller issues, and maintenance failures. The CPUC, an independent regulatory body, oversees CUC’s operations, rate-setting, and accountability.
Power plant engineer Wonjing Cano said the islandwide outages occurred on Feb. 6, Feb. 17, and Feb. 19. He explained that the Feb. 6 blackout happened during switching operations that overloaded a transformer, which then cascaded to another transformer at the substation. The line crew had prepared a switching procedure for a project scheduled the following day.
“When the line crew prepared their switching for the following day, the load current was still normal, below the transformer’s 600‑amp setting. Unfortunately, the load started to increase…and there was undercalculation,” Cano said. “They were not expecting that during the switching time there would be an increase in load on that feeder because of the peak load.”
He added that engineers on the power distribution side performed the calculations.
CUC officials said the Feb. 19 outage was caused by a transformer fire on Navy Hill near the hospital. Engineer Ernesto Dugson said a cross arm on a power pole fell and short‑circuited three wires.
“It’s a new cross arm, but the pins are metal…those things corroded and it fell,” Dugson said.
CPUC Chair James Sirok, who attended the meeting via teleconference, said: “So, all I understand is that the problem was caused because of a cross arm falling and the wires crossing. So that’s a maintenance issue, correct?” he asked.
“Yes,” Dugson replied.
“In other words, had that power pole been properly inspected and maintained, that would not have happened,” Sirok said.
Dugson said CUC will implement preventive maintenance.
Cano said the Feb. 17 outage was triggered by an “overspeed” event on engine No. 7.
“Based on the meter record, in a split second it changed from 60 hertz to 63 hertz, which activated the overspeed trip,” he said. “Mechanics checked to verify what caused it, but they say they cannot find the cause.”
CUC also reported a March 12 outage on Feeder 7 that affected customers in Lower Base, As Mahetog, Achugao, San Roque, As Matuis, and Marpi. Officials said overgrown vegetation grounded the lines and caused the trip.
Sirok said the pattern of outages pointed to personnel and maintenance issues rather than aging engines.
“This isn’t a problem with aged engines,” he said. “This is a problem with personnel and your maintenance — your maintenance schedules, your vegetation crew schedules, errors in calculation. It all goes back to individuals and not the engines themselves.”
He added that he will place the outages on the agenda for the next CPUC meeting.
“People make mistakes. That’s not a problem. But if it deals with maintenance and scheduling, perhaps we need to look at it and come up with a solution so that we don’t get these kinds of power outages again,” Sirok said.
The meeting grew heated when Angello criticized CUC for responding only after problems occur.
“Instead of checking preventively, sometimes it waits until it blows up. Then they go out and fix it instead of jumping in ahead of time to prevent a bigger problem,” Angello said.
Ernest pushed back.
“I would just stress…we’re happy to provide a more comprehensive report, but I would like to nip in the bud any assertion that CUC does not care about maintenance,” he said.
Angello replied, “I did not say that. Don’t put words in my mouth. It has been something that’s been overlooked in the past, and if you deny that, then you’ve got a problem.”
Ernest said CUC is doing its best with limited resources.
“We are an agency that is struggling for funding and has been underfunded for years,” he said. “Any assertion that we are intentionally negligent or prioritizing the wrong things…I’m just sitting here listening to how this is all our errors, our negligence, and a lack of maintenance.”
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.
