SAIPAN – The Commonwealth Utilities Corporation has filed a $75 million reimbursement claim with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cover restoration costs from Super Typhoon Sinlaku, CUC Executive Director Kevin Watson said Friday.
The filing covers the full restoration cost, including power poles, transformers, conductors, payment to Guam Power Authority crews assisting CUC, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers work, the lease of generators currently in place and ongoing fuel, Watson said in an interview with local media.
“All of that was calculated. Numbers and values got submitted to FEMA. Hopefully, they’ll be able to pay like 50 percent of all of that,” Watson said.
There is no timeline for when payment may arrive, he said.
The utility is still pursuing full reimbursement for Super Typhoon Yutu costs eight years after the 2018 storm, Watson said. Items initially denied by FEMA have required CUC staff to re-justify and re-submit documentation, with some claims taking years to clear federal review.
“Photos, records, and every hour of every person has to be documented,” Watson said of the FEMA process. “One person looking at it may say, no, that’s not eligible, but then you get someone else or a group of them looking at it again.”
CUC is currently using its own funds to finance the Sinlaku recovery while federal reimbursement remains pending, Watson said.
The reimbursement filing comes the same day CUC’s Fuel Adjustment Charge nearly doubled, climbing from $0.24500 to $0.44489 per kilowatt-hour after Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission approval. Watson said pre-increase fuel costs were running about $4.5 million per month while CUC’s actual cost from its fuel supplier had risen to $8 million per month, creating what he described as a “bleeding” $4 million monthly gap.
“It’s like putting a bandaid on,” Watson said of the FAC approval. “It is going to slow the bleeding, but it’s not going to stop it.”
FEMA recently emerged from a federal government shutdown, Watson noted, which requires Congressional appropriation for disaster relief funding to resume.
