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The Guam Power Authority is pushing for the federal government to front $1.5 billion so that parts of the island’s electrical grid can be pushed underground.
GPA General Manager John Benavente pitched the amount to federal and military officials at the Guam Defense Forum hosted last week by the Office of the Governor at Dusit Thani Resort Guam.
Moving energy transmission lines underground is the most important step that GPA can take to improve resiliency over the next decade, Benavente said.
The Department of War only stands to benefit from the investment into hardening the island’s grid, he said.
According to Benavente, putting Guam’s entire electrical system underground would cost about $8 billion.
But $1.5 billion would allow GPA to run an underground transmission system from the north to the south, and tie in generator units and critical facilities, he said.
Putting in underground transmission lines would also reduce the amount of time it takes to hook facilities and homes powered by overhead poles back into the grid after a disaster, Benavente said.
“Let me put it this way. In Typhoon Pongsona in 2002, it took over three months to recover,” he said. “In 2023 in Mawar, it took 50 days, still not fast enough.”
Typhoon force winds impacted 36,000 poles and over 1,000 miles of power lines.
According to Benavente, with the $1.5 billion investment, GPA could cut restoration time down to less than half of the 50 days it took after Mawar.
55% hike
Benavente said there’s “no way” GPA can borrow the money on the bond market to move lines underground.
Debt payments would require a 55% increase to customer’s power bills.
“I’m not going to ask for that. I’ll get fired tomorrow,” he said.
But the investment from the federal government made sense, he said, because the DoW is 20% of GPA’s customer base and growing.
“If I have to borrow $200 million, he has to pay the debt service,” Benavente said.
Growing demand
According to Benavente, the buildup is anticipated to drive military power demand from a 45-megawatt load to over 100 MW by 2028.
“Today we have about 351 MW of capacity serving about 260 megawatt load,” he said.
By 2028, that load will grow to 305 MW.
He said that by then, GPA plans to expand its generation capacity to:
- 454 MW of conventional generators
- 235 MW of solar
- 170 MW of energy storage
Disconnection
But with talks of potentially moving small, modular nuclear reactors to Guam, Consolidated Commission on Utilities Commissioner Simon Sanchez raised concern about DoW disconnecting from the civilian grid last Thursday.
Nuclear is one of several advanced energy technologies weighed for Guam and other areas, Assistant Secretary of War for Energy, Installations and Environment Dale Marks said at the Guam Defense Forum last week.
Provisions in the House version of the fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act also require reports ahead of any deployment of nuclear power to Guam.
CCU’s Sanchez last Thursday pointed to the war department’s deal to get power from GPA up until 2032.
“After 2032, when the contract ends, are they going to do their own power system and they can put nuclear reactors on Guam?” Sanchez asked.
“It’s very important on the power side, that we keep them as a customer,” he said. “Understand their load, which is what we’ve been doing for decades, and then we can talk about, you know, whether or not (small modular reactors) are practical.”
Sanchez said small modular reactors are more expensive than what GPA can provide but “the concern is they have an unlimited wallet, and they could say, ‘Hey, okay, never mind. We’re leaving. We’re segregating.’”
With Congress apparently weighing the possibility of nuclear power, GPA had to be involved in the discussion, he said.
