Tenants residing in flats or homes that happen to have an illegal power connection to them tend to suffer when the power is disconnected by PNG Power Limited (PPL) or stand to risk it all through a fire or electrocution.
That’s the risk that tenants face when their respective landlord resorts to stealing power instead of doing the right thing by paying for electricity like every other hard-working people do. In Port Moresby this week,
PPL teams were out to inspect the homes on the list that have been disconnected previously, to see if they have not illegally reconnected again.
As it turned out, there were a lot of them discovered that have illegally reconnected. According to Mr. Damien Kaputin, the Acting Manager for Meter Audit Low Consumption of the Retail Division, in Gerehu alone three homes were illegally reconnected while three others were discovered as new illegal connections.
Most of them were properties rented out to tenants, where those tenants now don’t have electricity running through their homes, all because their landlord had to hire a couple of electricians to connect or reconnect illegally.
“With illegal connections, it’s a big issue. We are concerned about the nature in which the customers get reconnected which are unsafe and not to standards that could cause electrocution and fire.”
He said those that have been disconnected, they have to come to PNG Power and pay up their outstanding bills so that the PNG Power team can correct and connect them with a proper meter.
“Also, those customers that are still on illegal connection, they can come up front and report the illegal connections so that PNG Power can assist to connect them in a proper way with an easipay meter.”