With the recent uptick in power outages, The Guam Power Authority is now getting assistance from Japan, to help get things running again.
PNC’s Althea Engman has this power report
John Benavente, GPA General Manager in an interview on Newstalk K57 with Patti Arroyo stated, “We have some people flying in from Japan, this morning to help correct the problem, they have some machinery, updated machinery, that was put on so hopefully that will resolve that and get that back in the peak.”
Guam’s power system experiences its greatest demand during the hours of 6 pm to 9 pm.
Additionally, Generators have a higher chance of shutting down during the island’s peak hours.
Recently, GPA’s Piti 8 generator tripped due to a defective transformer temperature monitor, and GPA’s Cabras 2 unit tripped, making 45MW unavailable to the grid and causing power interruptions throughout several areas around the island.
When the Piti 8 generator was down, GPA isolated some of its circuits to help avoid an island blackout and stabilize the grid thankfully load shedding was avoided, but it may be necessary in the future to prevent an island-wide outage.
Benevente said, “Piti 8 has been coming on and off, on and off for you know, the transformer temperature to now the excitor, these things are normal, gets taken cared on a normal course of business, it’s just that when you have all these units down, it’s high and tight the situation now like it is now.”
Benavente also added, “GPA is doing everything to meet the island’s power load including placing GWA assets on standby generators. GPA is also working with large customers to isolate from the grid during peak time.”
In addition, a schedule of area outages has been formulated and has been posted on GPA’s social media pages and the website.
Reporting for PNC News
I’m Althea Engman
