Electricity generation and transmission in Papua New Guinea (PNG) should at least reach 70% coverage of the population by 2030 as per the goal of the National Government, but there is still more work to be done to achieve this.
This was revealed during the PNG Energy Summit & Exhibition 2022 in Port Moresby this week during the presentations and panel discussions on the use of energy to generate clean and reliable power for the masses. One of the presenters at the Summit was the Chief Operating Officer for Mineral Resources Development Company (MRDC) Limited Mr. John Tuaim, who was presenting the plans and achievements of the PNG LNG landowner company, Dirio Gas & Power.
Mr. Tuaim said the reason for the existence of such Independent Power Producer (IPP) like Dirio, is to achieve that goal and the company is going out of its way with innovations to expend this vital service in the country. He said the power generation landscape in PNG consists of three major power supply sources, there is the Port Moresby power grid with 121megawatt, the Ramu Grid, and the diesel generation of power in smaller centers.
Even though with this available, he said that electricity has not fully reached the remote parts in the country and added on top of that main towns and cities still experienced power outages. So, while there are issues in the main centers, most of the people have not received this vital service. “It’s a national priority, we need reliable and affordable power in this country as power improves the quality of life and is an enabler for industries to grow, so power is everything,” said the COO.
However, going forward he said there is now a vast source of energy to produce power, the renewable energy and the non- renewable energy and the green energy sources that could be used in the country to cover the generation and transmission capacity of power to the people and the industries. This is where overseas investors can tap into this to drive the energy sector in PNG to produce reliable and affordable power to benefit the masses.