Mariana Islands -Commonwealth Utilities Corporation (CUC) Executive Director Gary Camacho told the Saipan Chamber of Commerce that the CUC plans to install an underground power distribution system from power generating facilities to critical infrastructure.

He said CUC is now discussing the funding for the project with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and added that FEMA has a hazard mitigation grant program for the repair of disaster-damaged facilities.

He added that the proposed underground power distribution will connect Power Plant 1 to Power Plant 4 and the Commonwealth Health Center while the Chalan Kiya substation will be connected to the airport.

As of February 1, 93.4% of all meters on Saipan had been energized, while on Tinian, 79% of its active customers had already been connected to the power grid, he explained.

As of Wednesday, Camacho said there were 2,142 damaged poles, 946 damaged transformers, and 341 km of damaged overhead conductors in CUC’s power transmission and distributions system.

Camacho explained CUC was also assisted by the Guam Waterworks Authority and other utilities in the Pacific region in the repair of Saipan’s water system. He added that they were able to repair 2,000 typhoon-related leaks.

Source: Marianas Variety