Ramu grid to feed Lae

By HELEN TARAWA
THE reintroduction of hydro-power generation to Lae city means that it will have access to the Ramu grid
for supply, PNG Power acting managing director Carolyn Blacklock says.
She said power supply into Lae was not perfect but so much better than it had been.
Blacklock said Lae was experiencing regular and lengthy outages as well as load shedding due to insufficient generation.
“It’s not perfect, it’s far from perfect, but we are so much better than we were because companies like Mainland are joining the grid after being away for almost four years. Trukai, Goodman Fielder, all of the fish factories, are all drawing energy from PPL,” she said.
“This is a weekly occurrence now, companies believe in PNG Power. We are doing business with Goodman Fielder on their new factory.
“We are supplying September quarter more power than we have to Harmony Gold Mine – that’s 17 megawatts. It’s absolutely reliable.
“We are doing the supply on hydro, we are looking at how we could do special industrial tariffs to encourage more industries in between Nadzab and Lae to have a preferential tariff.”
Blacklock said PPL signed a memorandum of understanding with Wafi Golpu Mine.
“They believe that we can supply them power based on our track records with Hidden Valley,” she said.
“The problems with the Ramu grid were mainly landowners felling trees on the line.
“We know from experiences that this is not affecting Lae.
“We have planned outages on Saturdays and Sundays.
“We are your state-owned company, we are working hard to make sure that the noise around PNG Power stops.
“I would hope that we become the reliable regular suppliers that PNG wants us to be.”
Meanwhile, PNG Power signed a K30 million project for the rehabilitation of two hydro power stations through a joint venture agreement yesterday.
Blacklock said under the town electrification and investment programme, a lot more attention was being given to power generation.
“There are a lot of things that we are doing, connecting households, but we are also doing things in that programme that should have been given a lot more attention and since I’ve been working here, it’s really around generation,” she said.
“We know that our lowest cost generation in PNG equals that of the world so we can talk a lot about what might happen with coal or hydro, solar or with wind.
“That’s actually what we should be doing and that is exactly what we are signing today – rehabilitating our existing assets.
“What we are signing here delivers on the promise that both the Kokopo and also Ramu systems that we want to bring back green and renewable energy at a least cost to our people.”
The Asian Development Bank funded projects involve the Warangoi Hydro refurbishment project in East New Britain and the construction of the Yonki Toe of Dam Surge Tank and other remedial works.
Blacklock said they would be able to produce about 28 megawatts of electricity between the two projects.
She said the installation of the surge tank at Yonki Toe of Dam enabled them to return to producing 18 megawatts of power and that Warangoi, outside Kokopo, was a tough system to work in.
“This project will mean that for the next two years Warangoi will be out of action as they will be relying on other fuel sources of power for Kokopo,” she said.