Power outages hit Lae city

PARTS of Lae city have been hit by blackouts since the New Year.
Blackouts were experienced on the first day of the year for more than three hours in areas from Chinatown to Malahang and at night from Kamkumung to Boundary Road and Milford Haven.
The blackouts continued intermittently throughout the second and third days of the new year, prompting users to take to social media to vent their anger.
Electricity consumers at Hunter were the worst affected during the festive season.
On Christmas Eve, while parishioners at the Redeemer Lutheran Church were singing their last carol by candlelight at about 9pm, lightning struck in a sudden heavy downpour.
It tripped power lines at Balob Teachers College, forcing a blackout throughout the night.
Early next morning PNG Power workers tried for about six hours to untangle the lines and restore supply.
For the Lutheran mission at Ampo, their 13 hours without electricity was compounded by a lack of water supply.
The mission’s water supply depends on electricity from the city grid.
Efforts to get comments from PNG Power by phone and e-mail proved unsuccessful yesterday.