PNG Power Limited (PPL) could have restored full electricity supply on the Ramu grid to the upper Highlands region sooner, had it not been for landowners preventing workers from detecting a recent fault that disrupted power supply to five areas last week. According to the State-owned power company, some of the transmission line towers cannot be remotely accessed on the PNG Power system to locate a fault and therefore, PPL teams must physically access them to find out where a fault might be along the power grid. However, when PPL teams went in to investigate some of those towers, they were prevented to do so by landowners, who demanded compensation payment before accessing their lands where the towers are located. Nevertheless, PPL eventually accessed the towers with the assistance of the police and located the fault, fixed it and restored power over the weekend to Kundiawa, Jiwaka, Mt. Hagen, Wabag and Southern Highlands province. Initially, the power disruption within the Ramu Grid occurred last week Thursday when PPL experienced power issued along the main transmission lines between Himitovi to Kundiawa and Kundiawa to Kudjip, which also caused Pauanda Hydro to trip off. This then caused power to trip, causing power disruptions in all the upper Highlands region. Meanwhile, PPL said the issues with landowners demanding compensation before the access of power infrastructures on their land in totally unnecessary as it only prevents PPL from providing effective electricity service to the masses.