Bulolo rural electrification reaches Sagayo village

MORE than 30 houses were lit up with electricity last Friday at Sagayo village in Ward 13 of the Buang local-level government area in Bulolo, Morobe.
The houses were part of a group of more than 100 houses that were supplied electricity by the Bulolo District Development Authority for the first time since since 2009 under the district’s rural electrification programme.
It cost almost K100,000 to have power connected to the 30-plus houses.
Deputy Secretary for Petroleum and Energy Department Veve Vore and local MP Sam Basil turned on the switches to mark the connection.
Basil said it cost K3000 to install the minimum supply kit (MSK) and three bulbs in each house.
“Under the rural electrification programme, many more villages along the grid or through grid extensions will have access to power,” he said.
“The soon-to-be established National Energy Authority (NEA) will light up 1000 homes (250 per region) under this rural electrification programme this year.
“The same model used by Bulolo will be adopted by the NEA to power 1000 homes no more than 300m off the main grid for PNG Power Ltd or off-power grids owned by other licensed power retailers operating in PNG.”
Basil said Prime Minister Peter O’Neill supported the rural electrification programme and allocated K5mil to it in this year’s budget for its implementation.
He said depending on the success of the project, more funding would be made available by the government.