by Mindy Aguon

Guam - Brace yourselves: power bills are going up again. The Public Utilities Commission on Monday night approved a 3.39% adjustment to the total bill. This means residential customers with a $271 average monthly power bill will see an increase of about $9. The rate increase took effect May 1.

Guam Power Authority spokesperson Art Perez says the increase will pay for more than $138 million in capital improvement projects over the course of the next five years, which includes the SMART grid, underground projects, substation generation upgrades and for the construction of the consolidated utility services building planned for Fidian.

This is just the first phase of a total 7.5% increase that will be phased in over the next five years. Perez says the next increase should take effect about this time next year.