Bank working on electrification plan

STATE Enterprises Minister Sasindran Muthuvel says the World Bank is working on a master plan on the country’s electrification programme to be released in April.
Muthuvel was replying to Pomio MP Elias Kapavore who enquired about the status of the US$1.7 billion (K5.3 bil) national electrification project which Australia, New Zealand and Japan were funding.
Kapavore asked Muthuvel whether the first component of funding for the project had been given. The three donor countries had signed an agreement during the 2018 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Port Moresby to provide electricity to more than 70 per cent of the population.
“It is true that over US$1.7 billion was committed to the project during Apec but to date, the development partners have not come clear as to which programme they are actually funding,” Muthuvel said.
“That is also part of the reason the World Bank is concluding the master plan, the national electrification roll out plan and a power strategy of which a first report will be released by April.
“That master plan will (show) how we will implement and how the development partners will be funding.”
He said Australia had committed A$150 million (K341.6m) for transmission networks and A$100 million (K227.7m) for half-grid solutions.
Muthuvel said the Government was keen in privatising almost all the generation capacities to provinces and districts.