PNG Power Ltd investigating city power outages, says an official

PNG Power Ltd is investigating the cause of power outages over the last two weeks, an official says.
Acting managing director Bruce Corbet in a statement said Port Moresby had experienced several outages over the last two weeks of which two where system-wide.
He said system outages were mainly caused by aging infrastructure, system tests and factors outside PNG Power’s control such as branches falling onto power lines.
“PNG Power has undertaken thorough investigations on the causes of these outages and our responses to rectify them.
“Following on from these investigations, PNG Power has taken drastic steps to prevent future system outages with the initial task of emphasising and enhancing standard operating procedures with staff right across its operations nationwide.
“The line protection system will also be addressed to ensure an improved protection system is in place in all power stations, substations and transmission lines,” Corbet said.
He said PPL would work continuously to “improving our communications to the general public and consumers in keeping them informed through our social media sites, our website and through SMS blasts”.
“The public is also encouraged to call our national call centre.
“While every endeavor is being made to ensure we communicate in a timely manner, it is equally important to note that we are not in a position to be able to identify every fault and/or issues affecting the general public, and therefore, seek the assistance of the public to report any local issues or faults that occur through to our national call centrer,” he said.
Corbet said the company would be carrying out more improvement work on its transmission and distribution network across all its systems.
These are projects that will greatly enhance system and minimise outages, he said.
“Connection of more households to electricity supply, the expansion of easipay agents throughout the country and the inclusion of smart metering systems onto the grid in 2019 are initiatives aimed at improving consumer accessibility to power while enabling technology to enable consumers to better manage and use power,” he said.