Profile Overview
U.S Energy Atlas with total energy layers
View the interactive map Quick Facts
- The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) meets nearly all of its energy needs with imported petroleum products. In 2019, refined petroleum products were CNMI’s top import and accounted for about 24% of the Commonwealth’s total import costs that year.
- Electricity customers in CNMI pay a fuel surcharge that varies with the price of diesel fuel. The fuel surcharges declined in 2020 as world demand and prices fell. However in 2021, CNMI's fuel surcharge rose as world oil prices increased.
- CNMI had no utility-scale (1 megawatt of larger) solar electricity generating capacity in 2010, but by 2020, CNMI had 2 megawatts. In 2019, the Commonwealth Utility Corporation proposed construction of two additional solar power plants, a 2-megawatt one on Rota, and a 3-megawatt one on Tinian.
- CNMI's electric utility generates electricity at five diesel-fueled power plants (three on Saipan and one each on Tinian and Rota) and the territory’s entire population has access to electricity.
- In 2020, electricity prices in CNMI were 15% less than in 2019, but they were still 2.3 times the U.S. average.
Last Updated: January 20, 2022