Reliable Power for Lae City is top priority for New PNG Power leadership

Under the new PNG Power Ltd (PPL) leadership, residents in Lae City can expect a more reliable power supply to their homes and business houses as well.

This is the assurance from the new acting PPL Managing Director Ms. Caroline Blacklock during her recent visit to the city.

“The recent lengthy power outages in Lae are unacceptable and I will apologise to the people of Lae. As the industrial hub of our country, reliable power is essential,” said the acting Managing Director.

“I travelled from Goroka to Lae last week and spoke with business and political leaders to learn first- hand of the problems. It comes as no surprise that regular power outages are having a significant impact on businesses and the community as a whole.”

“I am deeply concerned and have asked Mr Alastair Andrews, recently appointed Chief Operating Officer to take the lead and work on restoring reliable power to Lae.”

“Mr Andrews is putting together a plan specifically to address reliability issues in Lae,” she said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Andrews said there are low-cost measures that can be implemented quickly and other solutions that will require significant investment and time to deliver.

This include the set-up of the protection system in place to trip components when there is a fault or disturbance that appears to require significant review with new settings modelled and implemented. Some of these new settings have been already installed across the substations in the Ramu System.

The generator refurbishment projects started in 2014 require a focus in 2018 to keep them on track. They have faced funding and associated issues that have caused delays, inefficiencies and risk to staff in the area.

There has been also a focus on defect repair on the main transmission lines over the past year or so and this need to be completed in 2018 as well.

PPL is developing a coordinated program across all these projects and initiatives to ensure it minimise and then eliminate delays.

In addition to this, the power company will also be looking for indications of deliberate vandalism that may be the cause of blackouts.

Pictures: Ms. Blacklock speaking to PPL staffs in Lae city