K600mil project to lift supply

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THE K600 million Edevu Hydro-Power project outside Port Moresby in Edevu is expected to be completed by the end of  2019, according to the developer.
PNG Hydro Development Company Ltd (PNGHDCL), the developer in partnership with other companies, celebrated the completion of a 500metre underground diversion tunnel costing about K25million.
Company managing director and project initiator Allan Guo said the project was important to address power supply problems in Port Moresby, Central province and even  Gulf province.
“Our commitment towards delivering this project to address shortfalls in electricity supply in Port Moresby as well was to meeting the increasing
energy demand speaks for itself,” Guo said.
“We have started negotiation with landowners, feasibility studies and did exploration work since 2009.
“We have actually come a long way and in February we launched the hydro-power project and now we are celebrating the completion of the diversion tunnel
which is indeed a milestone for this project.”
Guo said the diversion tunnel 11metres high and 7metres wide will be temporarily used to divert the natural course of water to allow for the construction of the dam.
“Once the dam construction is completed, we will close the tunnel and this will also be used to control water levels at the dam during operation.”
The project is expected to generate 50megawatts of electricity and will be supplied to the Port Moresby grid through a power-purchase agreement between the company and PNG Power Ltd.