The Marshall Islands government is injecting $10 million to the Marshalls Energy Company this fiscal year, with a planned additional $7 million next fiscal year.
The purpose of the funding is to support MEC’s need to purchase new engines for the power plant, according to Finance Minister David Paul.
“These are necessary investments for MEC to operate,” he said. The $17 million for MEC power needs is carryover infrastructure funding that was not spent during the second Compact funding agreement that expired last year.
These are part of an attempt to rebuild the utility company’s services back to reliability. One of the two power station buildings is currently in the process of being demolished.
The $17 million is the amount that RMI officials floated to the US-RMI Joint Economic Management and Financial Accountability Committee in 2022 as needed by MEC for a new power plant. The funds were not approved at the time.
Instead, the US and RMI agreed to US funding an immediate US Army Corps of Engineers review of the power situation in Majuro as a precursor for next steps. Although funds were made available, the power infrastructure evaluation by the Army Corps was never implemented by MEC and the RMI.
In the interim, power services continued to decline due to old and deteriorating engines, some of which have been decommissioned in the past two years.
The container generators that MEC rented earlier this year from the global power supply company Aggreko to keep the lights on in Majuro are costing the power company $1.2 million a year.
Meanwhile, MEC’s power station “one” that opened in 1982, is being torn down piece by piece to make way for a new power plant building to house new generators.