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.

A Papua New Guinean businessman has been arrested and charged by police as the first of 15 “persons of interest” relating to post national election violence in the Southern Highlands Province earlier this year.

Police have confirmed the unsuccessful candidate for the SHP regional seat, Peter Nupiri, a former chair of PNG Power and a construction business managing director, has been arrested and charged over election-related crimes.

Police Commissioner David Manning confirmed the arrest and charging of Peter Nupiri.

• READ MORE: PNG police probe into Mendi mayhem names four rival political suspects

A search warrant was executed by police as confirmed by Commissioner Manning.

“We are not time bound by the elections. If these candidates think that we are, then they are sadly misinformed,” he said.

Police also confirmed a candidate personally presented himself to Commissioner Manning and was interviewed by the Police Special Investigation Team (SIT) to ascertain whether he was criminally responsible for crimes committed in Mendi, SHP.

He was not charged but will be required if evidence permits.

200 ballot boxes destroyed
Police allege that Nupiri, 46, from Olea village, Mendi, Southern Highlands, communicated with individuals to destroy about 200 ballot boxes that were stored at the Mendi police station.

Police allege his communication via mobile phone to several men led to the six-days violent destruction of Mendi town.

The ballot boxes were stored at the police station after supporters had disputed the counting of the 200 plus ballot boxes.

On August 18, several armed men allegedly entered the premises and fired several gun shots and threatened the duty officers.

They then took control of the premises and opened the two containers where the boxes were kept and took the boxes out and destroyed the ballot boxes by setting them on fire.

The result of the actions taken by the men led to the burning down of properties, killing of 15 people and destruction of other property.

Republished with permission.

A massive earthquake has sent shockwave across PNG with at least four dead, properties and key infrastructure destroyed and fears of a mounting death toll.

The 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck at 9:45am yesterday and rocked the newly-built five-star dormitories at the University of Goroka, leaving about 7600 students homeless and forcing PNG Power to shut down the country’s biggest dam at Yonki.

The plant generates and supplies power to Morobe, Madang and the Highlands region. Parts of Highlands Highway in the Markham Valley were cracked open.

• READ MORE: Fears of rising death toll after powerful earthquake rocks eastern Papua New Guinea
• Other earthquake reports in PNG

At the UoG, the students rushed down the stairways and scurried out of the dormitories as a debris of brick blocks, metals and glasses crashed around them. The ceilings and walls cracked open and a section of one of the buildings’ roofs collapsed.

“The earthquake of whatever size it was has hit all our new dormitories to the very core of their foundations,” said a university academic, Dr Maninga.

“We invite the structural engineering professionals to assess the damage before we make any serious decision.

“We will also enquire with the national geohazard centre if we are to expect another earthquake and of what magnitude.

“Also, we look forward to meeting with a team from the DHERST (Department of Higher Education Research Science and Technology) with Minister Don Polye.

Tackling the emergency
“This unfortunate natural disaster has placed us in an emergency situation and we look forward to meeting with them to address this emergency. In the meantime, the students are advised to find shelters where they can.

“Those students from outside the province can use the classrooms for studies and lodging as well.

“The mess will be opened and continue to serve the students.”

The UoG students council representative, Melvin Kink, said the students understood the situation they were in now and would cooperate with the administration to live through it until further advice.

He also told the PNG Post-Courier that their library building was also affected.

PNG Power advised of a total power system outage in Morobe, Madang and the Highlands region following the earthquake.

The power supplier confirmed reports of damages at the Ramu Hydro power station and switch yard and advised that their team would carry out a proper check before they could safely restore power supply to their customers.

First medivac from landslide
The Post-Courier received a report of Manolos Aviation making its first medivac of a couple injured in a landslide as a direct result of the earthquake out of Kabwun district in Morobe Province.

In the Rai Coast, Madang Province, reports were going viral on social media of people and properties buried in landslides.

In Yelia Local Level Government constituency of Obura-Wanenara district in Eastern Highlands Province, Kevin Kojompa, a teacher at the Yelia Primary School, said staff houses were destroyed.

The National Disaster Centre acting director Martin Mose said he had not yet received a full report on the nationwide effects of the earthquake.

Yesterday was a weekend day and the Post-Courier was unable to reach the National Disaster Centre or its provincial branches bout the effects of the earthquake.

Meanwhile, aircraft were using Goroka Airport after the earthquake, which signals that it was not affected.

Republished with permission.

PNG Power Limited — faced with a business on the brink of total collapse due to ageing infrastructure — is losing K25 million (NZ$10 million) a month in revenue, and is on top of a staggering K650 million (NZ$265 million) debt owed to service providers.

The monthly loss in revenue is through power theft, tampering with meters and frequent outages that have forced many companies — large and small– to run their own electricity generation units, adding K20 million (NZ$8.2 million) to the losses incurred by PNG Power Limited.

Information provided to the PNG Post-Courier has painted a grim picture about the state-owned entity, PNG’s main electricity provider.

• READ MORE: Other PNG power reports

According to people close to PNG Power, the SOE requires more than K1 billion to bail itself out of the current mess and deliver reliable power to the country.

However, how it raises this money is a contentious issue yet to be addressed by government and the PNG Power management.

Melisha Yafoi reports that PNG Power currently owes service providers and Independent Power Producers debts totalling K650 million.

The debts are now believed to be at an unsustainable level unless monthly losses of around K25 million, grid reliability and revenue collection are all addressed immediately.

In addition, concessional loans have been given to PNG Power by the ADB, World Bank and JICA worth more than K400 million, tipping the debt to more than K1 billion.

A well-placed industry source told the Post-Courier on Monday that the state entity had serious cashflow issues that need to be solved immediately.

Public demand explanation
Student journalists Yesmah Nouairi and Abbra Ntum report that the public have demanded an explanation from PNG Power about why there are frequent blackouts in the nation’s capital and other regions.

Customers, responding to PPL’s notices on Facebook advising of power outages last week and recently, have also expressed frustration about the frequent blackouts.

“We have been experiencing low power voltage and power outage since last week Tuesday,” said a customer from Boera village in Central Province.

They also expressed their frustrations about the power company not sticking to its advertised outage schedules.

PPL advised its consumers on its Facebook page that it would carry out power interruptions to allow workmen to do urgent maintenance work.

They said the areas that would be affected were Waigani, Gerehu stages five, six and parts of stage two.

However, residents from Morata Two, Two Mile, Boera and Gerehu Stage One and Stage Three have also been experiencing constant power outages.

“Power has been coming on and going off since 11pm last night, and it just went off now, is this part of the so called maintainance work that the company is doing?” said a resident from Gerehu Stage Four.

Line clearance damage
Others complained about the line clearance and the damages it may cause to electrical appliances in their houses that can cause fire or injury.

“Gerehu Stage One, Udia Street power pole 9657 seriously needs line clearance,” commented a frustrated consumer of PNG Power Facebook page.

“The powerline from the pole to the house is fluctuating and there is not enough power current in the house and this has caused damage to so much of the electrical appliances.”

Many people said it was expensive to replace or buy new electrical appliances every time there was a power outage in the city as most households use electric stoves and pans for cooking.

PNG Post-Courier articles are republished with permission.

PNG Power Limited managing director Flagon Bekker resigned over the weekend citing family issues after serving the Papua New Guinean utility for nine months as he faced strong pressure over power woes nationwide.

He comes the eighth head of the country’s national electricity supplier to resign from the position over the last six years.

The turnover of top management has been very high since the termination of former boss John Tangit in 2015 under the chairmanship of Larry Andagali.

• READ MORE: PNG Power boss resigns with immediate effect

Tangit served his full term and was serving a second when he was removed.

The PPL board has also had a very high turnover – William Kenjibi was board chairman and replaced by Joshua Bakiri in 2015 until he faced elections and was replaced by Robert Bradshaw as acting.

Larry Andagali served his full three-year term until Andrew Ogil took over between 2016 and 2018. Peter Nupiri succeeded Ogil until this year when Moses Maladina was appointed.

Before Tangit’s leadership, Bougainvillean Tony Koiri was head of PPL and achieved a profit of K50 million.

Biggest profit
Tangit and Larry Andagali, however, had the biggest profit announced in 2016 before he was removed, with a K56 million margin. Since then, the company has struggled, even dropping to more than K100 million in the red.

Maladina announced over the weekend the resignation of Bekker effective immediately, indicating the appointment of Obed Batia as officer-in-charge of PNG Power while a more formal engagement was finalised.

“Consequently, I have put in place an officer-in-charge to oversee the operations until such time as the NEC/shareholder makes an appointment,” he said.

“In the interim, Mr Obed Batia will be the officer-in-charge. Mr Batia is the incumbent strategic adviser to the MD’s office and has more than 30 years of experience holding various senior positions within the company.

I have every faith in Mr Batia’s ability to provide much needed stability.

“The chairman and Board of PNG Power will provide the new officer-in-charge and the leadership team with its full support, during the interim.

“We assure all the PNG Power employees and their families, key stakeholders and suppliers and valued PPL customers of continued stability during this transition period.

‘Key priority’
“It remains our key priority, to focus on the objectives of our annual operating plan and to deliver on a promise to provide accessible, affordable and reliable energy services to the people of Papua New Guinea.

“On behalf of the board, management and staff of PNG Power, we thank Mr Bekker for his service to PNG Power and wish him all the best in his future endeavours.

“I would like to take this opportunity also to thank Mr Bekker for his time here at PPL and to wish him well, as he returns to his family in Australia.”

The PNG Bulletin reported yesterday that Bekker was under pressure from disgruntled PNG Power workers that confronted him on Friday in a sit-in protest regarding their Enterpriser Agreement which he had not addressed on several occasions and other associated management issues.

Gorethey Kenneth is a senior PNG Post-Courier journalist.