PPL prepares for Apec

By HELEN TARAWA
PNG Power has projections to meet the electricity demands of the country, especially for the Apec summit next year.
Acting chief executive officer Alex Oa told The National that Apec was one of the biggest events that the country would host and they started working on it.
“It’s a whole works, not just generation but also the distribution system,” Oa said.
“I believe our reliability is improving throughout the country and we can only work hard to make sure it continues to improve and expand.
“We don’t have much time but we can’t just sit back because we have the government’s target.
“We have a good relationship with the new board appointed last year and are working closely with them.”
Commenting on the national electricity rollout programme, NEROP, which was raised at the PNG Petroleum and Energy Summit, Oa said the project was aimed at meeting the government’s target.
He said PPL was part of this major project initiated by the Department of Petroleum and Energy launched last year. It was targeted to reach 70 per cent households accessibility to electricity by 2030.
“We are working with the Department of Petroleum and Energy because there are some policies that were yet to be finalised.”
Acting chief operating officer Vali Mae said PNG Power was fully aware of major events that were taking place.
“We are always on duty 24 hours and monitoring those feeders at the distribution level,” Mae said.
“We have started the meetings for Apec and we will make sure that there are no disruptions.
“We are also looking at the Gazelle and the Ramu systems as well and also the major tourist attraction centres to improve their generation capacities.”
Meanwhile, Oa said construction on the Divune Hydro power project in Northern is well underway following the signing of a power purchase agreement last year and was expected to be completed by 2020.