Basil slams poor power supply

Poor and unacceptable status of power supply from the Ramu grid is one of the biggest impediments to development of this region of Papua New Guinea, Energy Minister Sam Basil says.
He said there was no reason why Lae should not be at the forefront of PNG’s economic activity in the Asia-Pacific region.
Through a memorandum-of-agreement signed between Morobe government, Lae City Authority and Mayur Power Generation, “this is the first step to unlock the true economic potential of Lae and the province”.
“Our manufacturing is stifled as power costs are far too high and uncompetitive to produce anywhere near our capacity or capability,” Basil said.
“So whilst we are a jewel in the South Pacific with our attributes of cheap labour, access to all the raw materials to manufacture and with coastal ports on the door step of Asia-Pacific – the engine room of the global economy – the opportunity has largely gone begging. The clean emission capture/reduction technology we will utilise will massively reduce our current sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and particulate matter levels, bringing emissions well below World Health Organisation limits, whilst reducing carbon dioxide emissions and drastically reducing power generation costs.
“We are finally getting a win-win solution in Morobe and Lae for the environment and economically for our country.
“In elevating the welfare of our own people over other agendas, Lae EEP initiative will diversify the resources sector, provide Morobe and particularly the Lae city the energy needed from within PNG, rather than current practice where companies from jurisdictions such as Singapore, supply the most costly and highest polluting energy from of heavy fuel oil.
“All the while Papua New Guinea denies its own people the revenue and sends foreign currency offshore.
“By not developing our own coal energy resources, they will be exported and used by other countries to manufacture goods and import it back to PNG – there is no sense in this.
“We can expect a new power facility in just over two years from now.
“We now wait on PNG Power to finalise the power-purchase agreement that it requested in writing from Mayur Power Generation, which PNG Power has had since March 2016.”