PNG Power Ltd

The Easipay system was shut down on Saturday (June 30) in order for the prepayment system to be upgraded to a newer, improved version.  

In a statement, PPL said: “The shutdown enabled the PNG Power ICT and Customer Services teams to ensure data from the old version was merged into the new setup.

“As of 11am on Sunday, the PNG Power Customer Service offices nationwide were vending Easipay. The Vision City vending site in Port Moresby was the first to go online and vend.

In a statement, PPL said: “PNG Power and Digicel PNG expect this to take two weeks and understand this will be an inconvenience for its Digicel customers.

“We urge Digicel customers to buy Easipay credits to last two weeks before Saturday 12 noon or to purchase Easipay credits through the vending sites or to use other mobile vending platforms.

PNG Power acting Managing Director, Ms Carolyn Blacklock, and Enga Governor Sir Peter Ipatas, commissioned the generator on 22 April 2018.

Customers in Wabag are connected to the Ramu Grid supplied by the Ramu Hydro power station at Yonki. When there is a transmission or distribution line fault along the Okuk Highway, it affects the supply to Wabag.

However, this standby generator will quickly restore supply in such situations and continue to supply power to Wabag customers.

Working closely with PNG Power Limited, Australia has provided up to A$400,000 (just over PGK1,000,000) for the purchase and delivery of ten 80kva transformers that are needed to restore power across parts of Hela Province and Southern Highlands Province, which have a combined population exceeding 750,000.

The transformers will see reliable power restored to some 3,500 PNG Power customers, including businesses, health clinics, schools and family homes.

Minister Duma said while the NEC has announced for the position to be advertised, they are also monitoring the performance of the current managing director, Carolyn Blacklock.

He said any appointment will be made on merit and they will be considering all the best candidates to take over the role and to implement the government’s agenda to improvement power services in the country.

The Minister said this following the announcement of Peter Nupiri as chairman of PPL and Maureen Mori and Prashanti Shasti as directors of the board.

In a statement, the PNG Power Ltd said: “There is currently a technical issue with Digicel’s Easipay vending and PPL is awaiting the mobile company to sort out the issue.

“Customers are asked to purchase at the Easipay vending sites, through the bmobile network and through mobile banking.”

Meanwhile, the National Capital District and surrounding areas experienced a total outage on Wednesday evening following a technical fault on the Port Moresby system.

The announcement was made by Minister for Public Enterprises and State Investments, William Duma, on Friday (Nov 10) during the ground-breaking ceremony of the Kilakila substation in Port Moresby.

He said the project will be constructed by an independent power producer (IPP), NiuPower Limited, a joint venture company owned by Oil Search Ltd and Kumul Petroleum Holdings Ltd.

“The electricity will be sold to PNG Power Ltd (PPL) under a power purchase agreement between PPL and NiuPower.”

PNG Power Ltd is running a test purchase at its headquarters and by 12 noon today, vending will be opened at all PPL offices nationwide.

“At 2pm, other Easipay vending sites will be opened followed by SMS/mobile at 5pm this afternoon,” says the firm.

“This is to control traffic to prevent the system from getting overloaded, and prevent another crash.”

PPL has thanked its customers for their patience and apologised for the inconvenience caused.

Easipay customers nationwide have been experiencing issues with the system since yesterday (Sept 11).

“This is preventing customers from purchasing Easipay tokens via the vending sites, mobile banking and mobile phone top-up,” says PPL in a statement today.

“The Easipay servers are experiencing congestion and the PNG Power Ltd ICT team are currently working to rectify the issue.”

PPL says restoration efforts are continuing from last night.

The firm further apologises for the inconveniences caused.

(Loop file pic)

Loop PNG received reports of blackouts/low power supplies into homes since Friday (June 2), which has greatly inconvenienced homes and business houses.

For Lae alone, PNG Power Ltd announced an emergency shutdown of its gas turbine from Friday 8pm to Saturday 8am. This was to allow for an urgent clean-up of the fuel tank.