Power outages affecting trade

By CLARISSA MOI
POWER outages impact trade and increase the cost of doing business, according to Brian Bell group chief executive officer Cameron Mackellar.
Mackellar told The National that Brian Bell had strong power back-up plans across all its operations, however, the power outages impacted trade and increased costs, particularly with refuelling and servicing generators.
Mackellar said power outages were becoming more common which was not good.
“We spent more than K300,000 in generator fuel across the group in 2020 and you only need a generator when you don’t have power,” he said.
“This was nearly twice as much as we spent in 2019.
“Servicing and maintaining or replacing generators is an added cost as well.
“While we know this is just part of the fabric of being in business in PNG these days, there is an expectation it should not be getting worse.
“Particularly, given the agreed electrification project by 2030 the Government has committed.
“However, it seems we are a long way from that in 2021.” Paradise Foods Ltd chief executive officer James Rice said, generally, the power outages did not impact their operations because they had generators but those generators were being used for a third of the time to produce their products.
He said this was putting additional stress on their generators and raising related costs.
Rice said the outages also impacted their production equipment resulting repairs and damaged products.
He said power outages cost the company thousands of kina a month.
The Port Moresby Chamber of Commerce and Industry (POMCCI) said it had received reports from its members that the frequent power outages were affecting their operations.
President Rio Fiocco said some of their members had reported that some of their plant and equipment were damaged as a result of the outages.
He told The National that those plant and equipment were expensive and it was disappointing and a significant cost to the business houses.
According to PNG Power Ltd, the recent power outages in Port Moresby were caused by a failure in the Waigani substation distribution transformer.
Managing director Flagon Bekker said the failure was probably caused by excessive tap-changing cycles and the technical teams were currently working on site to replace the transformer.
He said transformers for power systems were expensive.
Bekker said that PNG Power was working with donor agencies to improve the Port Moresby transmission and distribution system this year which would gradually improve its service in the next five years.