Perfect Storm Causes Power Outages; GPA Releases Load Shedding Schedule

Guam Power Authority scrambled early this evening to restore electricity to several pockets of the island after a confluence of events caused the unscheduled outages.

According to GPA spokeswoman Joyce Sayama, the GPA generator known as Cabras 2 had been offline since November 30 for external boiler equipment repair. Around 4 p.m. today, solar farm production dropped from 60 megawatts to 27. Ms. Sayama said her agency believes that customers with solar panels also would have experienced drops in home and office energy production, causing those residents and businesses to tap into the GPA grid.

Then, at 5:04 p.m. the Yigo Combustion Turbine tripped, followed by the trip of the MEC #8 generator at 5:49 p.m. MEC #8 was restored about an hour later. By 7:45 p.m., all circuits were restored, according to Ms. Sayama.

The unscheduled outages caused GPA to prepare and release a load shedding schedule. This schedule, which you can see by clicking the link below, shows which areas in which villages will experience power outages at one-hour intervals between 5 p.m. and midnight if GPA has to load shed.

GPA December 2024 Load Shedding Schedule (Potential)

“Energy demand is highest between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. which is our peak,” Ms. Sayama said. “We ask everyone to please conserve energy as much as possible during peak hours.”

GPA for the past several years has been implementing a power system reliability and cost reduction program that includes the development of solar farms and a mega power plant in Ukudu. Once the Ukudu power plant comes online, system reliability is expected to be resolved. And once GPA meets a certain threshold of solar power generation in tandem with the cheaper-fuel-burning Ukudu power plant coming online, power bills are expected to drop significantly.