Guam Power Authority suffered a massive loss of $100 million and counting, in total damages caused by the fire and explosion last August 31. This was according to the early reports by GPA General Manager John Benavente, as the power company is about to start its investigation, but this time to assess whether the power transformers can still be salvaged or repaired.
In a press conference the day after the explosion, Benavente said that the GPA is fully.
GPA spokesperson Art Perez already clarified to the local news that the fire is not generation related but is related to the distribution of power and its transmission. He confirmed that no outages are expected as a result of the defective breaker because it was already isolated and put out of service.
According to earlier press release of GPA which was later on supported by the Guam Fire Department, the fire and explosion in Cabras 3 & 4 is purely accidental in nature. In addition, assistant Fire Chief Joey Manibusan said that they were able to pinpoint that the overheated transformer motor and the oil of the transformer ignited the whole fire which turned into a huge explosion. This was the result of the investigation by the Fire Department led by GFD Chief Joey San Nicolas, though he was not really certain which generator the motor was in since they had limited access inside the power plant in the early stage of the investigation.
GPA General Manager John Benavente said in the initial reports made by the local press, that the power plant where the explosion happened remains to be inaccessible and should be off limits for about 4 months. This is to make way for the structural engineer’s assessment on the stability of the whole building structure especially the walls.
The fire that broke out on August 31 affected and somehow weakened the structural components of the power plant building such as the beam and columns. GPA’s plan is to temporarily put new roofing to the building but they first have to make sure that the walls of the whole structure will be able to hold it securely, earlier reports added.
Another problem that GPA is facing is that the beams and columns are not available in the Island. Benavente said that it has to be ordered and fabricated in other countries and shipped in Guam, and that may take 2-3 months with uncertainty.
“New structural beams are needed to secure the building and for the new temporary roof.” says Benavente in an interview with a local daily.
GPA also mentioned that the explosion of Cabras 3 & 4 might have totally destroyed one of the plants beyond repair and the cost of building (the power plant) from its foundation and up is somewhere around $300 million 20 years ago.
“We are bringing back everything we can; trying to get as much as we can from every machine,” Benavente said in a local news.
It was also said that the demand of power consumption in the entire island should be at least around 252-255 megawatts on peak hours. The explosion in Cabras 3 & 4 cut the power supply to about 79 megawatts and combined together, the two plants had a maximum capacity of power generated of 74 megawatts according to GPA. This is aside from the possibility of losing one plant that would be really a huge cost for the GPA to shoulder.
A quick glance or preliminary assessment of the damaged Cabras 3, GPA said earlier that it is still repairable and that it could take at least six months to fix it. Cabras 4 on the other hand, have sustained the more extensive damage and the GPA could be looking of at least one year for it to be rehabilitated or worse the repair could not be possible anymore./The Junction News Team
