The country continues to develop and the economy continues to expand as well meaning that there will be more demand for electricity supply for the industries and businesses for their operations, something which the government wants to address through private sector investments in the energy sector.
That was made known by Prime Minister (PM) James Marape when giving his keynote address at the Edevu Hydropower Reservoir Impoundment ceremony for the new hydropower project in the Central province on Friday 21st April.
Marape said that there is no doubt that demand will continue to increase with the expansion of Port Moresby city and the developments in the neighboring provinces like Central and Gulf.
The PM said when the Edevu Hydropower project was at its initial stages in 2009, the energy demand for Port Moresby was below 100megawatt, but today Port Moresby electricity demand load has increased in the last 15 years.
“The need of Port Moresby is approaching 200megawatt,” said the prime minister.
“We will work to support the power expansion by building out of Port Moresby into Central province in a planned manner, partnering the Central Provincial Government,” said the PM.
That support is the government funding of the electricity infrastructure, which is the 132KV transmission lines from Edevu Hydropower site to Port Moresby, where 54megawatt of additional power will be supplied. Marape thanked the developer PNG Hydro Development Ltd for this investment.
He took the opportunity to also invite other investors to do the same, to tap into the energy sector so to meet the increasing demand of electricity.
“This is because energy is a major focus of ours and we want the private sector to get engaged, freeing up government capital for us to invest in health, education and other enabling infrastructures.”
On that note, the PM said that the investors must also look at other areas of energy generation like green energy solutions going forward when making investments in the Papua New Guinea energy sector.