News

Aug 20, 2023

Piti 9 generator at full capacity while repairs to Cabras 2 go on

POWER PLANT: The Piti 8 and 9 power generator units are shown Dec. 18, 2022. The Guam Power Authority said Piti 9 was back at full capacity as of Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023, while repair work to its

POWER PLANT: The Piti 8 and 9 power generator units are shown Dec. 18, 2022. The Guam Power Authority said Piti 9 was back at full capacity as of Thursday, Aug. 3, 2023, while repair work to its Cabras 2 generator remains ongoing. David Castro/The Guam Daily Post

Piti 9, one of the main generators on island, was back at full capacity as of Thursday afternoon, preventing the need to implement a rotating outage schedule that night, according to the Guam Power Authority.

GPA published a rotating outage schedule early this week, and then a revised schedule on Wednesday, warning of outages that could last up to two hours.

The utility noted that Cabras 2, another of Guam's main generators, had tripped offline due to a boiler tube leak on July 28.

Piti 9 was online, but at limited capacity, earlier this week, and GPA cautioned that the generator might be taken offline for repairs.

The utility told The Guam Daily Post that while there was no load shedding Thursday night, load shedding did occur Tuesday and Wednesday.

And although Piti 9 was back at capacity, the repair work on Cabras 2 remained ongoing as of Friday afternoon.

The Aug. 2 revised schedule noted that possible rotating outages could occur through Sunday.

Some significant load shedding occurred Monday night, as two combustion turbine units failed and needed repairs, GPA General Manager John Benavente said Tuesday during an oversight hearing with lawmakers.

Guam will remain in a "critical period" until the new 198-megawatt power plant in Ukudu is completed, according to Benavente.

However, the completion of that plant has been delayed due to damage caused by Typhoon Mawar. Initially slated for commissioning by April 2024, the Ukudu power plant may not come online until the end of 2025.

Benavente said he expects consumer demand for power to grow between 2024 and 2025, so GPA is looking for ways to augment or boost generation capacity. That includes possibly bringing in temporary power generation for a three-year period.

The GPA general manager said he anticipates providing definitive recommendations for effectively increasing capacity in time for the August meeting of the Consolidated Commission on Utilities, the governing board for the power and water utilities.

Poll results are published every Monday in The Guam Daily Post.

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