HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — The Piti 8 baseload unit is back online after needing to be secured Wednesday for emergency liner replacements.
With Piti 8 down, the island had two baseload units offline, the other being Cabras 2.
The resulting limited generation capacity meant that some circuits needed to be immediately load shed Wednesday morning, although all customers were restored power just before 2 p.m. Load shedding also took place Wednesday night, however.
GPA General Manager John Benavente said Piti 8 came back online just around midnight Wednesday night. The unit has to go through a liner wearing process and was at about 60% capacity late Thursday morning. It is expected to gradually increase in capacity and should be at 100% capacity, or 43 MW, by Friday, according to Benavente.
Cabras 2 remains offline and is expected to return to service by the weekend.
A major combustion turbine generator, Yigo CT, has been offline for repairs to damage sustained from Typhoon Mawar, and isn’t targeted to come back online until late November.
GPA had published a schedule for rotating outages on its Facebook page, which will be implemented as a last resort if the island’s demand for energy exceeds generation capacity. The notice applies up to 3 a.m. on Saturday.
While limited generation capacity still remains, the power utility is requesting large power customers and hotels to voluntarily go off grid and operate using their own generators during peak hours, from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Power customers are also encouraged to conserve power from this time frame.
“Refraining from using unnecessary air conditioning units and turning off electric water heaters immediately before and during the peak demand hours can significantly assist in reducing energy demand and required load shedding,” a GPA release issued Wednesday stated.
Guam Power Authority General Manager John M. Benavente gives his report, with his management team, to the Consolidated Commission on Utilities during a regular monthly meeting Aug. 29 at the Gloria B. Nelson Public Service Building Conference Room in Mangilao.
