Council: 50 per cent of business cost goes towards electricity

Business

ABOUT 50 per cent of the operation cost of businesses in the country goes towards electricity, according to the PNG Business Council. Executive director Douveri Henao said during a Government-Business dialogue in Port Moresby yesterday that the reliability of electricity grids was the major concern. “The cost and affordability are not the major concern but the reliability of grids,” he said. “And that largely transcends into an average of 50 per cent of the operation cost of businesses.” Henao said businesses buy generators and fuel as backup. “This cost factor is a direct result of the unreliability of the grids,” he said. “And so the general assumption is that if a grid is reliable, then that 50 per cent operational cost will naturally be reduced. “It will result in a large liquidity within those businesses to further reinvest into jobs and into capital expenses.” Henao said identifying the various grids would result in potential growth indicators. “In most cases, the existing grid is really where much of the interest is in the private sector – to look at the energy investment going forward.  “We do see the importance of the mixture of liberation programme policies that we do encourage not just generation, but also in the transmission, distribution as well.”