By Anish Chand in Suva

Energy Fiji Ltd (EFL) has warned that the Monasavu and Nadarivatu hydropower schemes may need to shut down if it does not rain after October.

In a message to customers, EFL said the Monasavu dam had been experiencing below-average rainfall over the past few months from November 22 to April 23.

“These months are typically our rainy period,” the statement read.

• READ MORE: Other Fiji power reports

“This low rainfall has contributed to the declining dam and water level at Monasavu as well as impacted to some level the Nadarivatu hydro scheme.

“If this low or nil rainfall continues in the upcoming dry period from May to October 23, then this can lead to the Monasavu and Nadarivatu hydropower schemes to operate at critically low water level and may need to be shut down eventually in the next few months.

“EFL is urging all its valued customers to use electricity wisely and conserve energy.”

Anish Chand is a Fiji Times journalist. Republished with permission.

Port Moresby’s power blackouts may now be over.

After 15 years, Papua New Guinea’s national government and its Chinese partner, PNG Hydro Development Ltd, formally launched the Edevu Hydropower Project located along the Brown River area outside Port Moresby.

PNG Hydro has invested K650 million (NZ$302 million) in the project which is one of Central Province’s biggest assets that will supply electricity not only to Port Moresby but the whole Southern region in the near future.

• READ MORE: Other PNG power reports

The government has partnered with the developer with K120 million (NZ$56 million) for a 132KV transmission line from Edevu to Port Moresby which is already under construction, on top of the K650 million spent by the company.

PNG Hydro Development Ltd managing director Allan Guo said it took them almost 15 years to reach the launch of the project and this was possible through the good relationship and discussions they had with the landowners of Edevu.

He said it was a private investment without any guarantee from the government because they believed that their investment would greatly have an impact on the lives of the people and country as a whole.

Prime Minister James Marape (pictured in inset above) thanked the developer for having trust in PNG and privately funding the project.

‘Wonderful reflection’
Marape said it was a “wonderful reflection of an investor”, who saw this opportunity thousands of kilometres away, and had faith in PNG.

He said what Edevu landowners had done, by going into partnership with a foreign investor, was a good example for traditional landowners in the rest of the country.

“You have shown a wonderful example to other landowners right across our country.

“You [landowners] own 97 percent of land rights. My government, as governments of past, and any government into the future, will not break that right you have. It is your inherent, God-given right to your land.

“But land sitting idle is of no use to us, or more importantly, our children and their children that will come into the future,” Marape said.

The Sirinumu Dam and its Rouna 1, 2 and 3 stations are the main suppliers of electricity to Port Moresby and surrounding areas.

However, years of neglect and usage has led to much of the equipment becoming worn out, resulting in constant blackouts in Port Moresby.

Also a growing population places a huge demand on power uses which results in overloading.

The PNG Power Limited has also raised concern in the past about illegal power connections.

Maxine Kamus is a PNG Post-Courier Reporter. Republished with permission.

Almost 30,000 homes have no power and major supply chains have been disrupted in Aotearoa New Zealand — and Prime Minister Chris Hipkins is also warning that more fatalities from Cyclone Gabrielle remain possible.

Hipkins said it was now seven days after the cyclone had passed through and the true extent of the devastation and loss was becoming clearer with every passing day.

“Lives have been turned upside down, many people have seen their homes and all their possessions completely destroyed,” he told a media briefing in Wellington late yesterday.

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Countless others have been displaced, tragically so far 11 people have lost their lives, and more fatalities remain possible.”

He said 28,000 homes remained without power.

“Telecommunications have been severely disrupted, fresh water is in short supply in some areas and roads have been badly damaged, limiting access to some areas and causing significant delays in others,” he said.

He said supply chains had been disrupted and moving goods around had been “incredibly challenging”.

“Crops have been badly damaged, many completely destroyed.”

Death toll 11
Earlier yesterday, police confirmed two further deaths relating to the cyclone, bringing the total to 11.

Hipkins today paid tribute to emergency services and first responders, who had done New Zealand proud.

Watch the media briefing

Video: RNZ News

“Many have worked themselves to utter exhaustion. The stress and strain of the last week is clearly starting to show, and particularly in places where power and communications remains disrupted, we know that tensions can be high.”

He said nobody should underestimate the psychological toll this disaster was taking on some New Zealanders.

“The past week has pushed many to their limit, even more so given it comes on top of other weather events, the disruption of a global pandemic and too many other significant and disruptive challenges to mention — our resilience is being tested like never before,” Hipkins said.

“But as we’ve repeatedly seen in recent times, adversity brings out the best in Kiwis. We rally together and we support each other.

“We look out for our neighbours, we go the extra mile to protect the vulnerable, we share and we care. ”

The Australian emergency responders announced on Friday they were supporting Fire & Emergency NZ with a 27-person impact assessment team and Hipkins said 25 of them were already on the ground in the Hawke’s Bay, with two supporting the national co-ordination centre.

He said Aotearoa had also accepted an offer of support from Fiji — 10 personnel from their defence force, four fire authority crew and four national disaster management officials were preparing to leave for New Zealand in the coming days.

Crucial satellite imagery
He added that the United States and Australia — through the New Zealand Defence Force — had provided crucial satellite imagery products of the affected areas.

“And we’re in the final stages of working to accept an offer from the Australian Defence Force who will support the New Zealand Defence Force with a C-130 transport aircraft, air load teams to rig freight on the aircraft and environmental health staff to assist in analysing health risks.

“All of this will be a great help and we thank Fiji and the United States as we thank Australia.”

Hipkins said making a monetary donation was the single most helpful thing people can do in the wake of the cyclone to support those disrupted communities, because “that enables the support organisations to [require] what is needed in those communities”.

He said there was no doubt that New Zealand had a steep mountain ahead of it.

Tough calls
“Our attention over the past week has been focused on the initial emergency response, rescuing those stranded, restoring lifelines and removing hazards. In some areas that still remains very much the focus, in other areas though, recovery is starting to get underway,” Hipkins said.

“As the shape of the damage and the need becomes clearer we’ll be able to shape our response accordingly.

“We know that this will come with a big price tag and we will have to once again reprioritise and refocus our efforts and our resources. We will build back better, but we will also need to build back more resilient than before.”

He said the country had underinvested in infrastructure for far too long and that had to change.

“If we’re going to build back better and if we’re going to build back quickly, some tough calls will need to be made, and I’m absolutely committed to doing that.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Papua New Guinea began New Year 2023 with sizzling fireworks that lit up the skies.

But our hopes of shrugging off the “power blackout” tag ended just as the year was a few hours old.

An hour into New Year celebrations in the capital Port Moresby, like a perennial remnant, the inevitable popped like a fireworks flare gone bonkers — resulting in an inkiness that lasted into the wee hours of the morning.

• READ MORE: Other PNG power reports

Eleven days into the year, black outs are holding businesses and people to ransom across the country, prompting PNG Power Limited CEO Obed Batia to address the root cause of the constant outages.

According to Batia, the reasons range from aging equipment to high rainfall, vegetation that overwhelms power lines, the refusal of customers to allow PNG Power to trim vegetation and access powerlines, and low diesel fuel.

The creepy crawlies like snakes, rats and bats that can spark a major outage by squatting illegally in a transmitter don’t even rate a mention.

Batia said overgrown trees near power lines are some of the biggest contributors to blackouts, and the refusal of customers to allow PPL workers to cut down these trees add to the problem in many parts of the country.

Resisting cutting trees
He said: “Many customers resist PNG Power officers from cutting the trees and clearing of the vegetation within their properties. We are working with external parties to control this.”

Lae PPL office refused to answer questions asked by the Post-Courier about blackouts in Morobe.

In Goroka, a blackout lasted from Jan 6-8 for 48 hours, coming on for only 30 mins and going off again.

Frustrated consumers urged PNG Power to come clear on why the blackout was continuing.

Chamber of Commerce president Chris Anders said the blackout comes as “the risk of having your business or home broken into” had escalated as criminals took advantage of the blackouts, as they normally hit in the early hours of the morning.

“The lack of announcements from PNG Power on what they are doing to fix the power supply is deafening,” Anders said.

PPL said: “The Power Transformer at Himitovi Substation in Goroka which caters for the Goroka load experienced a technical fault on Friday around 2am.

“The issue was rectified at 7pm on Saturday night and power fully restored for Goroka customers.”

Without power for 8 days
Along the North Coast Road in Madang, a community has been without power for eight days with requests receiving responses that never were followed up by PPL.

Batia said that rainfalls have attributed to low water levels at Yonki and Ramu will see continued load shedding in Madang and Highlands while Lae has been assured of supply from Taraka, Mildford Power Stations, Baiune Power Station in Bulolo and the Munum IPP.

“In Port Moresby, recent system outages were experienced due to technical issues between all generation power stations both at PNG Power and the Independent Power Producers (IPPs),” he said.

“We are working together with our IPP stakeholders to ensure we correct those issues with respect grid control and regulation issues, in order to provide stable power.

“All Highlands centres and Madang have their standby power stations which supplement the load.

“There has been little increase in the water level but not to a capacity for the Ramu Hydropower Station to generate to full capacity yet.

Back to normal for Kokopo
“Gazelle grid has stopped load shedding and the system is back to normal for Kokopo, Rabaul and Kerevat customers,” Batia added.

“In all other provincial centres who run on diesel fuel power stations, our challenge is ensuring our fuel suppliers get supply to our power stations on time.

“When there is late supply, our teams resort to load shedding, which is conserving fuel until the next supply of fuel is delivered.

“Discussions are ongoing with our fuel suppliers to ensure we have an understanding on time supply for our diesel power stations.”

Miriam Zarriga is a PNG Post-Courier reporter. Republished with permission.