GPA eyeing $52M in systems upgrades

by Sabrina Salas Matanane

Guam - The Guam Power Authority is hoping Governor Felix Camacho will sign a bill into law that will allow the agency to fund $52 million worth of capital improvement projects. According to GPA Spokesperson Art Perez a lot of work needs to be done on the generation transmission distribution system, and the utility agency will need to invest in hard assets to substations to ensure hardware is properly upgraded.

He says the legislation will help with other things, adding, "One thing about if the legislation is signed, we can push out a PUC surcharge that was supposed to take effect later on this year. The surcharge would've funded over a period of time, our working capital fund, which the bond indenture requirement. It's like making sure that it has about 30 days of funding support so just in case of natural disasters, we can still operate."

Lawmakers recently during a legislative session passed Bill 365 providing revenue bonds for the agency. It's now at Adelup being reviewed.