by Jolene Toves

Guam - The Guam Power Authority is moving forward in offering residential customers with smart meters the option to go pre-paid.

Take control of your power consumption with Guam Power Authority's new pre paid option. It allows residents to purchase power in increments similar to buying a pre-paid phone card residents who want to participate in the program must visit a GPA location and sign up for the service, while existing customers must ensure they have no outstanding balances or enter into a payment agreement plan to clear arrears before signing up for the prepaid option. It is a little different for brand new customers.

GPA customer service supervisor Beth Mendiola said, "If you have no outstanding balances we actually only asses you the application fee to apply for services which is generally $25 for residential and then $50 to get on the prepaid and have that available credit for your services."

With no deposits, no late fees and no reconnection fees the option is great for those residents who want to control their budget and take charge of when power is paid. "Generally a lot of off islanders like a lot of military people that have come from off island have expressed interest mainly because of the fact that they can see and observe their consumptions even while they are off island," she added. "Then it is only on your consumption rather than and they have peaks and valleys on their consumption so they don't want to tie up $600...they rather keep it in their usage."

As part of the feature, residents under the prepaid accounts can view their power consumption at myusage.com and receives alerts through the GPA mobile phone application. "But it gives you the average daily consumption here it tells you when they made payment and actual balances," she said.

Once you are nearing that threshold an alert notice will be sent letting you know you are coming to the end of your credit. Additional credit can then be applied over the phone, internet or at a GPA location.