PPL makes little from Lae firms, looks to boost grid

By GLORIA BAUAI
LAE city, the country’s industrial hub, accounts for just 15 per cent of revenue for the national power supplier, PNG Power Limited (PPL) due mainly to poor electricity supply, an official says.
PPL chief commercial officer Dr Nigel Booker said the 80 per cent of the company’s revenue was generated from Port Moresby.
Booker said the rate of consumption in the nation’s capital was a factor because of its population and number of businesses.
The Ramu grid which supplies Lae, however, is bigger in size then the National Capital District’s and Booker said improving supply to Lae would see more businesses back on the main grid.
Booker said after a recent meeting with the Lae business community that he had found that some businesses relied almost entirely on their own power generation and were thus off-grid.
They said the main reason for going off grid was the continuous blackouts, slowness by PPL to repair and improve its service and high fees which had added to see many firms opt for their own power generation.
Booker said PPL started working on the Port Moresby grid since last August and is now focusing on Lae and the Ramu grid.
Meanwhile, Lae Biscuit Company chairman Ian Chow said power supply issues had been a constant issue over their years of operation in the Morobe capital.
“I have been running family business in Lae for the past 40 plus years, not once during this period did we have stable power supply,” he said.
“We always need power generators.
“The only difference between 1980s and now is that power issues are worse today. There is hardly a day when Lae city does not experience power blackouts,” Chow said.
He added that this was not only the current Government’s fault but a result of “decades of mismanagement and wrong people in charge of the organisation”.