Im getting pretty damn tired of all these power outages on Guam. Back in the 90′s we had what we called load shedding. Basically, the power agency would schedule regular outages (daily) because it could not provide enough power to service the entire island. This hasn’t occured in a few years, but that past couple months reminds me of that time quite a bit.
Basically, Guam has one of the last, if not the last government run power agencies in America. Our island relies exclusively onGuam Power Authority or GPA. We do not have competitive prices for electric or gas which causes alot of problems for the island. Alot of the agency’s equipement need replacement, but the government is not exactly doing well financially. So the gov’t is stuck with alot of old equipment which they patch up to keep the island going.
There are also many residents who are very upset about the quality of service provided by Guam Power Authority. The costs of electricity also has skyrocketed that last few months due to gas prices, and it really is terrible when you pay $250-$300 on average on power only to get outages almost weekly. Food spoils, electronics screw up, and it just gets plain hot on Guam. We live on an island who uses air conditioning almost daily. In the last two weeks there has been two major islandwide power outages that basically crippled the entire island.
Im looking forward to see what type of solutions they come up with to solve this problem. I would like to see the agency privatized as they did with our telephone service. Telephone service has been so much better and much more competitive since it was privatized nearly a year ago. The new telephone company provides very competitive rates and focuses on just a single utility. Its better for everyone.
that kind of situation is trivial here in the Philippines..power outages are common, even a daily thing in some places..especially in Bacolod where I used to stay..but we were fortunate enough to have a generator where we lived so we weren’t affected that much.
load shedding is an all-too-familiar concept for us here in Pakistan. Not so much in Islamabad, but in the rural areas it is still common.
I’m telling ya man! It’s time to get off the grid and go SoLaR. Whoo. Okay, Toni out, until next year some time.
You know that the outages are due to the mysterious brown tree snake that Guam is so famous for ha ha!
I am doing this project for IHS ( my high school ) and i have to do it on Guam and all the power outages, but i dont seem to be able to find alot of info. on them. Do you know much about them?
I attend University of Phoenix online from our home in Guam. This serves as a good SOURCE EVALUATION on the topic I considered: PRIVATIZE GOVERNMENT AGENCY. Mainly referring to the GPA crisis that we have! Thanks!!