Power Outage

The outage happened at 12:15 pm today, and was caused by a fault on transmission line (L545) between Dirio Power Station and Kanudi sub-station.

Although PPL has not provided any information on the expected duration of the outage, PNG Power has reassured their clients and customers that their technical team is working tirelessly to restore power to all other lines and feeders.

Additionally, the affected line has been isolated for further inspection.

In a statement issued on April 4th, PNG Power Lorengau advised residents that the power station will be shut down for an indefinite period due to a delay in fuel shipment into the province by the supplier. 

Owner of Pokapin Fuel Service Station, Betty Pokapin, described the dilemma as a “frustrating situation” that is costing them their business and livelihood.

“Usually, we can make K1,000 in a day but now, we are really down to just K30 or K27,” she revealed.

In a statement, PNG Power advised its customers and the general public in Lae and surrounding areas outside of the city that the issue started midday yesterday.

“The fault has been identified to be between Munum IPP Power Station and Taraka Substation and Power Station,” said PPL.

“The fault is affecting the supply of electricity into Lae city from the Munum Power Station and the Ramu Grid.

“Line patrol conducted on Saturday afternoon until the fall of dark has been called off and will continue again at first sunlight.

The locals claimed the ship had destroyed a submarine power cable that brings power to more than 3,000 people on the island.

A frustrated council member of Krangket Island, Rodney Selarn, says the blackout is a big blow to the people on the island.

“I would like to say that I have two more weeks till my people send their children back to school. I have really struggled with my people and this is a huge blow to me personally and the people of Krangket Island.”

Argentine President Mauricio Macri has promised a full investigation.

Argentine media said the power cut occurred shortly after 07:00 (11:00 BST), causing trains to be halted and failures with traffic signalling.

The blackout was prompted by a failure in an electrical grid that serves both Argentina and Uruguay.

The outage occurred as people in Argentina were preparing to go to the polls for local elections, delaying voting in several regional provinces.

Parts of Paraguay were also affected, a state energy company said.

Acting Registrar General, Noel Mobiha, today explained the glitch in the system.

He said the outage is due to an overload of the system, causing a shutdown since last week.

“We lost the capability to have our staff here register onto the main body now, getting through the window to getting some work for the registrations,” Mobiha said.

Power outage is also believed to be the reason behind the glitch.

“Our registration numbers went beyond what was known for the systems.”

Ensisi and Waigani are some of these areas that welcomed the New Year with a power outage which was restored in the early hours of January 2^nd, then went out again in the evening and is yet to be restored on January 3^rd.

In a statement on their Facebook page, PNG Power Ltd said with the bad weather conditions, they are unable to provide restoration times however, their teams are working in the affected areas to restore supply.

PNG Power CEO Alex Oa said the electricity company will prosecute suspects whose actions disrupt electricity supply.       

“PPL will not hesitate to prosecute those found to be vandalising its properties and have them pay the full cost of the revenue lost during an outage, and cost of repair of the damage caused or face imprisonment.”

The statement followed a power outage last week in Port Moresby.

The State Owned Power supplier in a statement this afternoon stated that total power outage in Port Moresby on Thursday at 8:15pm was because of a fault on line 545 which connects power supply between the LNG Gas plant, Kanudi and Moitaka power stations.

Normal power supply was restored at 12am in Port Moresby.

The outage, which affected the city and surrounding areas, occurred when there was a transformer fault on the Waigani Feeder 4 which resulted in load shedding and affected Gerehu, Morata, Waigani, Tokarara and Ensisi Valley.

The fault was located between Kanudi and Moitaka after a line patrol was conducted.

It was found that there was a conductor causing the short circuiting when PPL was trying to restore power supply during the four days of load shedding.

The fault was isolated and could not pick up on the PPL system control and was only located when linesmen conducted a patrol of all transmission lines between Kanudi and Moitaka.

Customers still experiencing power outages are encouraged to call the National Call Centre on 7090 8000 or 7653 5261.