Thieves a 25pc tax on PNG Power

By HELEN TARAWA
PNG Power Limited is focused on improving hydro power and stopping illegal connections, says the Acting managing director Carolyn Blacklock.
Blacklock told The National that hydro power will also stop blackouts.
“Our major focus is reliability and unless we can improve reliability everything else is secondary to reliability, even the cost of power.
“We can’t just save money, we need to stop the blackouts and improve quality and reliability.
“We must make ourselves financially responsible by spending less than our earnings but to create more earning we need to be working on hydro power and stop illegal connections.”
Blacklock said PPL spends more than it earns and this was worsened by the illegal connection which was about 20 to 25 per cent of the lost revenues.
She said PPL spends about K290 million a year on fuel.
“We have been bringing hydro power back, this strategy of refurbishing hydro power is underway and we’ve been working on it since March last year,” she said.
Blacklock made reference to Hidden Valley on the Ramu grid that had been averaging 42 per cent reliability, has now increased to supply 89 per cent.
She said PPL believes they have a good chance of supplying the Wafi-Golpu project.
“Reliability that Wafi-Golpu needs is 99.9 per cent and to achieve that we need to do investments as well.
“If we can get those renewables to be reliable, we can see a brighter light under the tunnel.
“We are far from perfect but it’s important that we tell our communities how we are going.”
Blacklock said they have committed to starting in July submit a half yearly report on PPL’s performance.
“We are now producing over 51 megawatts from Ramu 1 power station.
“This means that we don’t have to run heavy fuel, oil on diesel,” Blacklock said.