Outages affecting towns

By PETER ESILA
GOROKA, like other centres, is also experiencing regular blackouts, says Goroka Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Chris Anders.
“This is a nuisance to business but most businesses have purchased their own gen sets,” Anders told The National yesterday.
He said a bigger concern was the damage to electrical equipment in the event of a brownout or spikes in voltage.
“We enquired quite a few months ago about the possibility of some of our members converting to solar power to run their operations, we were told at that time that should companies wish to do that and run the majority of the time on solar, then they would have to disconnect from the local grid.
“In many other countries around the world people are connected to the grid and also have solar panels. Any excess generation gets fed into the grid. The producer of this power gets a credit off their monthly statement.
“Governments in many countries pay subsidies to encourage people to go green with solar, I think PNG Power needs to really reconsider their approach to this. If enough companies and houses installed solar panels, this would take some of the strain off the current consumption.
“The other thing that PNG Power needs to do is regular maintenance to the hardware and also cleaning up under the lines and the cutting of trees and branches.”
Bell Group chief executive officer Cameron Mackellar said managing and paying for alternative infrastructure such as gen sets as back-up power options was costly.
“I’m certain the impacts are greater for our hospitals, who would struggle to schedule operations around power outages. It’s something the government has to work to resolve quickly as like many other things in the economy right now. My question would be where does this put the country that said there’d be 70 per cent electrification throughout PNG by 2030, but we presently need to load-share, just doesn’t make sense.”
PNG Power is conducting load-shedding across the country because Puma Energy has stopped supplying fuel to its fuel-run power stations due to outstanding bills. On the other hand, the Government owes PNG Power millions in outstanding bills.