Gas plant supplying grid: CEO

The National Business

NiuPower has been supplying power to the Port Moresby grid since November following the opening of its gas power plant outside Port Moresby recently, says chief executive officer Michael Uiari.
He said there was sufficient generation of power in the capital city but more investments was needed for transmission and distribution.
NiuPower is a joint venture by Oil Search Ltd and Kumul Petroleum Holdings.
The Port Moresby power station is providing up to 10megawatts of power into the Port Moresby grid.
NiuPower funded the construction of a new transmission line from Gerehu Stage 6 to the Port Moresby power station.
The line would enable the power plant to fully dispatch its 58megawatt capacity and realise the potential benefits of having cheaper, reliable and clean power into Port Moresby.
“There is sufficient generation. Transmission and distribution requires investment,” he said.
“Once transmission and distribution is fixed, things should be fine.
“NiuPower has been dispatching to the grid since November, 2019
“The transmission and distribution infrastructure requires investment as well, not just generation.
“In the interim, we are working with PNG Power to provide black-start capability so we can start up the grid in the event of a total system failure, adjust some of our own settings to respond to an unstable grid in a way that does not cause a total system shutdown, understand what investment is required in transmission and distribution so we can jointly consider who is best placed to assist PNG Power and closely managing dispatch of electricity to the Port Moresby grid to ensure we achieve our respective targets.”

3 comments

  • Why do we have continuous outage last three days in POM if the sufficient power capacity is provided. Moitaka plant should have been reserved and not phased out as it will supply additional load to meet the POM demand when required. It will standby for contingencies during the peak hours until such time when generation supply is in abundance to meet POM load capacity and should not be the excuses of cost effective measures with high diesel or thermal run power plants. Customers deserve the right to have efficient power.

  • But wait – do we still remember a generator that was purchased from Israel during O’Neils reign a Prime Minister for the very purpose of generating power for the city?? if this gas plant cant supply power in addtion to the hyrdro power from the sirinumu dam then this generator should help supply power – but if its not able to do that than its a total waste of public funds/taxpayers money and we’re still sweating on the courts to arraign O’Neil on this.

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