Yanis explains outages

 By HELEN TARAWA  

PNG Power network issues have contributed to the ongoing power outage in Port Moresby, acting chief executive officer John Yanis says. 

Yanis told The National that these were normal network issues beyond the company’s control.

Referring to the number of power outages per day in Port Moresby which were affecting the entire city, Yanis said the issues were to do with transmission lines.

“Generation capacity for Port Moresby has increased; it is the network through which the power supply is distributed that is affecting the electricity flow,” Yanis said.

“It’s our Port Moresby system and the problems are usually to do with rust building up on power lines that affect the power supply.

He said the A$1 million (K2m) Airborne Integrity Inspection being carried out by Aeropower was to help address these issues on the transmission lines.

Aeropower, a Queensland-based company, is carrying out the exercise as part of the ongoing transmission lines inspection to check and verify the conditions of the lines and associated hardware.

The outcome of the inspections will allow PPL to plan its resources to carry out maintenance on those lines that are identified to have issues.

Yanis said the exercise would be carried out for the Port Moresby and the Ramu grids going through every transmission line.

He said the company would produce a report on the outcome of the exercise to be presented to PPL.

Commenting on the proposed PNG LNG 50 megawatt power plant, he said PPL has started doing its ground work including the sub-station at Gerehu.