Date set for new gas-fired power plant to start

THE commercial operation date for the K341 million 58-megawatt gas-fired power plant outside Port Moresby is the end of next month, according to a company official.
NiuPower Ltd chief executive officer Richard Robinson said the power station was commissioned in January. It is a 50-50 business venture between the Kumul Petroleum Holdings Ltd and Oil Search Ltd.
Robinson said the first two engines had already started while the third started last Friday.
“All the engines have been running. We are going through various mechanical tests,” he said.
“We’ll start a performance-testing of the station in first week of April which should bring us into the mutual operations sometime during the third week of April.”
Robinson said NiuPower had been committed from the start to provide the power station that PNG Power Ltd and the country needed.
“So our focus was on being flexible and efficient. For a 58mw power station, we chose six high-efficiency reciprocating gas engine generator sets with (not only) higher capital cost per megawatt than open cycle gas turbines but also much higher thermal efficiency required leading to a lower levelised cost of electricity over the project life,” he said.
Robinson said they were also focusing on maximising the national content of the development.
He said US$40 million (K132.48 million) had been spent on local sub-contractors and US$8 million (K26.5 million) in income tax paid to the Government by workers.
Robinson said the success demonstrated that private sector investment in gas-fired generation could provide a very cost-efficient solution.