Ru Creek Hydropower Station back online
PNG Power is continuing to make inroads into its Least Cost Generation Plans and the successful completion of the Ru Creek mini Hydropower station is a testament to our commitment in driving this.
Public Enterprise Minister, Sasindran Muthuvel, West New Britain Governor, Francis Galia Maneke and PNG Power Board Chairman, Peter Nupiri officialliy switched on the hydro power plant on Monday November 25.
The hydropower supply comes online at a time when PNG Power needs it the most. Ru Creek is now back online feeding into the West New Britain Grid after 5 years.
The Ru Creek Rehabilitation project is part of the Town Electrification Investment Program Tranche 1 additional funding by the Asian Development Bank.
This is a mini hydropower plant is a 800kW station which consists of two 400 kW cross flow turbine generators, which has not been in operation since November 2013 due to the failure and collapse of the spillway channel.
The plant required refurbishment, replacement, maintenance and upgrade of the equipment, machines and infrastructure to ensure that it is operational again and to prolong its productive lifespan as well as to enable the plant to increase electricity production to its installed capacity to meet increasing future demand.
At this stage, PNG Power has maintained the output from the station at 80% of the maximum capacity of 800kW due to the current inflows.
The project was delivered well before the completion date and a huge thank you to the hardworking installation team for their tireless efforts to restore the station to full operating capacity with the support of the Kimbe Operations team.
Initially, we had to fix our intake and weir after it was damaged in heavy flooding. Following that, we were able to get funding from ADB to fix the power station.
PNG Power is also undertaking refurbishment work at the Lake Hargy Hydropower Station in Bialla and we are hoping to make West New Britain free from using its diesel power station.
This adds onto our partnership with New Britain Palm oil who are supply biomass power into our Kimbe Grid.
We thank our customers and all your stakeholders in West New Britain Province for your patience throughout the years.
