No more loadshedding for Wewak
Business houses in Wewak, East Sepik Province, including residential and surrounding areas will no longer face load shedding of power, after PNG Power Limited (PPL) installed 4 new leased Aggreko generators to boost generation capacity.
Wewak has been experiencing a two (2) hour load shedding daily for the past years, for each interval in respective areas and has been a major concern for business houses and town residents.
According to PPL’s Momase Distribution Engineer, Levi Yalu, Boram power station was only operating with one of its two units, generating only 0.7 megawatts, and two Aggreko generator sets, generating 1.7 megawatts. Its total generation of 2.4 megawatts was not able to cater for Wewak’s peak demand of 3.2 megawatts, a shortfall of .8 megawatts, resulting in the ongoing load shedding.
But now with the newly installed four (4) leased Aggreko generators, boosting the generation capacity by 3.4 megawatts, PPL has now covered Wewak’s total power demand as of the 17th of May 2016.
Mr Yalu also confirmed that along with the installation of the Aggreko generators, PPL’s technical officers also restored Boram’s faulty unit which now sees full generation capacity within the township to a total of 6.8 megawatts, which covers Wewak’s demand of 3.4 megawatts, with an access of 3.2 megawatts on standby.
Wewak’s biggest business company, the South Seas Tuna factory also has a demand of two (2) megawatts. Currently they are using their own generators to supply their own demand. Mr Yalu said that recently, they have been in close consultation with PPL to be linked into the main PPL network.
Mr Yalu said work is currently underway to have South Seas hooked up onto PPL’s network. He said once that is done, this will see additional demand of power supply in Wewak increase to 5.2 megawatts.
“Despite the increase, PPL’s generation capacity of 6.8 megawatts is capable of taking on that demand. Good news is we have covered whole of Wewak’s demand including that of South Seas Tuna factory. And with the access generation of 1.6 megawatts, new demands can be catered for,” said Mr Yalu.
PPL also has plans to replace all its aging diesel generators throughout the country, as well as cutting down on the leased generators, which are used temporarily to ease demands in various provinces.
