PNG needs energy mix, says Basil

Business

ENERGY Minister and Bulolo MP Sam Basil says Papua New Guinea needs an “energy mix” in order to bring the price of electricity down.
Speaking in Lae last week during a press conference after the Bulolo district stakeholders’ meeting on Wafi-Golpu mine, he said: “For any nation to develop, we must bring the price of power down.
“When we talk about providing energy for a nation, we need to talk about energy mix.
“We cannot have 100 per cent dependency on hydro, or 100 per cent dependency on fuel oil.
“If we do all hydro power plants in PNG, and when there is dry weather, we won’t have enough rivers to power those plants.
“The same thing applies to fuel oil we import.
“Most of the fuel is fixed to international price: when there is an increase in price, and we run 100 per cent on generators throughout PNG, it will cost PNG Power Ltd a lot of money.
“We must have a mix of energy.
“If we continue to have high prices of power, we won’t prosper as a nation.”
The proposed coal power plant by Australian-based Mayur Resources is said to produce 50 megawatts of power.
It will be the first coal-fired power plant in PNG.
Basil said Lae had insufficient power supply with a lot of power outages.

One thought on “PNG needs energy mix, says Basil

  • PNG does not produce coal as yetPNG will become a dumping ground by developed countries like Australia who are trying to do away with coal stocks which has been blamed for being a major industrial as well as atmospheric pollutant which is contributing to global earth warming. PNG is a signatory to the Paris Climate Change agreement so PNG must not buy into this so called cheap source of energy which is not only dirty but uneconomical because we dont produce it ourselves.

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