Power shedding as Ramu is inspected

ELECTRICITY consumers in Lae will again be without power for most of the day Sunday as PNG Power Ltd (PPL) continues its load shedding exercise.
PPL said two power turbines at the Ramu hydro station at Yonki in Eastern Highlands, had broken down causing power to its users in Madang, Lae and a couple of the highlands provinces to be severely affected with the power company desperately trying to ensure continued services to its consumers.
PPL public relations said inspection work would be carried out on the 601 line from Ramu Power station to Lae.
Supply from Ramu would have to be cut back, leaving the two power stations in Lae to have to supply the city.
Their combined total generation capacity is 19.4 megawatts (mv) which is not sufficient to cater for the demand of over 20mv in Lae.
They said load shedding would have to be carried out so that electricity was rationed to all areas of the city until the inspection was completed and supply from Ramu to Lae city was restored.
The Ramu power station had been experiencing on-going problems which had affected power supply in Lae and other towns PPL supplies power to.
With an upsurge in people needing power connected to new and existing homes and businesses premises, the power company had been tasked with drought and aging machines only compounding the problem.
Most other provinces were facing the same problem with PPL grappling to rectify the situations.
Lae’s PPL acting centre manager Ronnie Kopi said  Lae would be disrupted until Ramu machines were back in operation.