PNG Power starts taking out illegal connections

National

By LUKE KAMA
A MAJOR disconnection exercise carried out by the PNG Power Ltd (PPL) is progressing well in the National Capital District, says a company executive.
Acting chief operating officer Vali Mae told The National yesterday that disconnection at Hohola Burns Peak settlement was completed last week and they were moving into other parts of the city.
“This issue of illegal connections is not something that we face only in Papua New Guinea,” Mae said.
“It’s an issue that is faced by all power utilities across the world.
“But the challenge with PNG Power is how best we can address this issue without depriving the citizens’ rights to access better electricity services. So to do things better, we have a distribution development plan which we will be implementing after implementing this nationwide disconnection exercise.”
Mae said the information gathered from the nationwide disconnection exercise was crucial to the development and implementation of the distribution development plan.
“We completed disconnections at Burns Peak settlement last Wednesday, which is ahead of our schedule.
“Now we are moving to Hohola Five so we will slowly be moving throughout the city based on the information provided to us by our PIS (information system) team.
“Once we complete Port Moresby, we will move out to other centres around the country.”