PNG Power Limited (PPL)

PNG Power chairman, McRonald Nale shared that the electrical bills owed to IPPs is inaccurate.

“PPL owes IPPs less than K700m which is inclusive of capital recovery cost, interest cost (inclusive of late payments), and other charges on top of the energy bills as stipulated.

The outage, now in its third day, has been attributed to two distinct incidents. Initially, tensions with local landowners escalated, resulting in the deliberate burning of a wooden power pole, causing it to collapse and leading to a partial outage. PNG Power's technical teams are actively engaged in discussions with the landowners to address the situation promptly.

The total outage was due to a collapsed power pylon near a river at Omea, along the Ramu/Madang Highway. The situation had caused so much distress to residents, business houses, government entities, schools and institutions as the situation was coupled with water outage as well.

PPL in Madang handled the situation well with constant communication and updates with residents and the general public through the Neighborhood Watch – Madang Crime and Alert WhatsApp group which kept citizens calm whilst waiting for power to be restored.

PNG Power Limited (PPL) has attributed this to a transmission line fault.

“This permanent fault has caused us to carry out emergency load shedding in Lae,” said PPL. 

As a result, there will be additional emergency load shedding in Lae and surrounding areas due to generation shortfall. This will be during peak hours today and onwards.

“The transmission line fault is between Singsing and Erap substations,” said PPL.

“It occurred on Saturday, 10th February, which resulted in Lae and surrounding areas being isolated from the Ramu Grid.

Dirio, PNG’s first Independent Power Producer (IPP), first commenced the sale of electricity to PPL under a long-term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), in November 2021 to power its Port Moresby grid. 

The firm says PPL now owes more than K180 million, and they have issued the notice of default under the PPA as there has reportedly been no engagement from PNG Power on how they intend to repay the amount. 

PNG Power said the cause of this disruption is the malicious damage on a transformer at the Himotovi Substation located just outside the township.

Vital services in Goroka town have been affected since 11am yesterday, with the Goroka General Hospital operating on back-up generator, same goes for banks and schools.

Goroka is currently reliant on locally generated diesel power, albeit with scheduled load shedding measures in place to conserve resources.

PPL chief executive officer, Obed Batia expressed his heartfelt wishes to the nation and made commitment to the people stating that a dedicated team of technical experts will work tirelessly throughout the long weekend to guarantee uninterrupted power supply across the nation.

The truck, valued at around K165,000, was purchased from Boroko Motors with funding from the Provincial Services Improvement Program (PSIP).

The truck was delivered to the PPL yard in Kokopo, on Friday, August 18th. It was received by the PPL management, headed by NGI regional operations manager, Paul Nau.

Governor Marum said too many times, people criticise PPL for power problems that they experience but do not know the hardships that this SOE faces. And as the host government, they have to assist this entity instead of criticising it.

The case sheds light on the responsibilities of landlords regarding the actions of their tenants and serves as a reminder to businesses and individuals about the consequences of meter tampering and illegal connections.

The matter came to the forefront when Kitogara Limited, a property owner based in Koki, sought a court order to permanently restrain PPL from disconnecting electricity. This move followed the issuance of a substantial back-bill of K323, 517.29 to Kitogara due to illegal electricity connections carried out by one of its tenants, Changle Enterprise Ltd.

In its mass disconnection notice, PPL said customers who have outstanding electricity bills will be disconnected.

“Reconnection of supply will only be done upon full payment of outstanding debts owed plus reconnection fees,” said PPL.

“Customers are asked to visit your nearest PNG Power office to settle bills and you will be issued an official PPL receipt.”