A group of disgruntled former PNG Power Executives and Managers have circulated a so-called open letter to politicians, media outlets and on social media to air their grievances (again). These desperate men have been dismissed recently for gross incompetence and some of them are currently being investigated for improper and fraudulent behaviours during their tenure at PNG Power. Whilst PNG Power is not obliged to respond to their ongoing lies and the defamatory allegations in this open letter to discredit the Board and Management, I am compelled as Chairman to respond.
The Warangoi Hydropower Station in East New Britain was shut down over the weekend to undergo major rehabilitation works for the next 12 months. PNG Power will still be able to maintain the power supply to its customers in the province through the Ulagunan Power Station in Kokopo and the Kerevat Power Station. Peak power demand in East New Britain is 10MW and at the moment, Ulagunan is producing 7.6MW while Kerevat is producing 1.8 MW which enough cater for the current demand. The Ulagunan Power Station’s generation capacity was boosted with the inclusion of leased machines which were brought in to provide extra generation for the period of the rehabilitation works. PNG Power is also completing overhauls of two generating units at Ulagunan that will provide an additional 2MW of reserve capacity within the next few weeks.
PNG Power and the Namatanai District Development Authority (NDDA) signed a partnership agreement on Thursday April 25, 2019 to re-establish electricity services at Konos and Namatanai in New Ireland Province. This partnership will now see electricity service is provided 24 hours in Namatanai town and rural areas. This will also enhance social and economic development activities within the district.
The Rouna 1 and Sirinumu hydropower plants will undergo major upgrade and rehabilitation to increase access and supply to customers in Port Moresby. PNG Power and Dongfang Electric International Corporation (DEC) signed the contract on 15 April 2019 for DEC to begin the rehabilitation work.
Power supply to customers in Enga Province will now be stable with the commissioning of the second generator at the new Rakamanda Power Station. PNG Power Acting Managing Director Carolyn Blacklock and Enga Governor Sir Peter Ipatas officially commissioned one more generator for Enga on Friday April 5, 2019.
PNG Power is focused on delivering safe, reliable and affordable electricity to our valued customers. Improvement to reliability, performance and preparing least cost generation are objectives PPL aims to achieve.
At 3:53am (Friday) the Sirinumu Landowners unlawfully trespassed all Rouna Power Stations and shut down the operations of PNG Power. Demands made by the Landowners are to the State and has no relation to PNG Power Ltd. Attempts made by Senior Management to calmly resolve the matter have been rejected by the Landowners. The Landowners have also shut down the water valves at the Main Intake gate and upstream gate affecting water supply to Mt Eriama Treatment Plant and Eda Ranu.
Ipak Giru is the first local woman to hold the position as a Center Manager in the history of PNG Power. She looks after operations at Yonki Township, which is the core of Ramu Grid. Ipak started her career with ELCOM (PNG Power) in November 1993 as a clerk typist.
PNG Power Limited is a State-Owned Enterprise as defined in the Kumul Consolidated Holdings Act and is incorporated under the Companies Act 1997. Like all legal entities, the Board of Directors set the company’s policies, strategies and vision. When the current PNG Power Board came into office early last year, it embarked on a plan to turn the company around. In order to do that, my Board had to start with the realignment of business under the core functions of power generation, transmission/distribution and retailing with corresponding business units established forthwith to ensure PNG Power fulfills its obligation to provide efficient, reliable and affordable electricity to its customers.
At 2.29pm yesterday, a system wide blackout occurred and was not fully restored until late evening. While the blackout was not caused by PNG Power, we sincerely apologise for the extended time it took to reinstate power supply and the obvious inconvenience caused to families and businesses. The unexpected interruption to supply on New Year’s Day was caused by a unique set of circumstances with several faults on the Transmission lines between power stations and substations which tripped generators at all power stations. In addition, the extreme situation of all Transmission lines being unavailable for a number of hours meant there were no options available for a number of hours. The eventual solution only made possible by diverting around normal transmission lines making the balance between voltage and frequency difficult to achieve stability.
