Following the opening of its gas plant outside Port Moresby recently, NiuPower, a joint venture between Kumul Petroleum Holdings and Oil Search Ltd. has been supplying power to the area since November, according to chief executive officer Michael Uiari.
He said that power supply is enough in the city but more investments are needed for distribution and transmission. The Port Moresby power station provides up to 10megawatts of power and NiuPower funded the construction of a new transmission line from Gerehu Stage 6 to the Port Moresby power station.
The line enables the power plant to fully dispatch its 58megawatt capacity and give off cheaper power.
“There is sufficient generation. Transmission and distribution require investment,” he said. “Once transmission and distribution is fixed, things should be fine. NiuPower has been dispatching to the grid since November 2019. The transmission and distribution infrastructure requires investment as well, not just generation.”
He added, “In the interim, we are working with PNG Power to provide black-start capability so we can start up the grid in the event of a total system failure, adjust some of our own settings to respond to an unstable grid in a way that does not cause a total system shutdown, understand what investment is required in transmission and distribution so we can jointly consider who is best placed to assist PNG Power and closely managing dispatch of electricity to the Port Moresby grid to ensure we achieve our respective targets.”
