By Vasinatta Yama – EM TV News, Mt Hagen
PNG Power Limited recently signed a Memorandum of Agreement with landowners in Southern Highlands Province and Hela to connect new transmission lines. It is a new national power grid which will provide a solution to the frequent power blackouts in the highlands region.
After the completion of the lines and sub-stations, Highlands’s provinces will stop using the Ramu Grid at Yonki dam in Eastern Highlands Province. The new transmission line will connect three provinces starting from Tari to Mendi and to Mt Hagen’s new sub-station.
It will be a 189 km’s of 132-kilovolts transmission lines from Wabia sub-station in Tari, to Tindimi sub-station in Mendi, then to Pauanda at Kaupena in Southern Highlands and will stop at Keltiga in Mt Hagen.
This 132 kilovolts transmission line will be the second highest voltage that PNG Power will produce, after that of the Lae transmission lines. This means that there will be enough power supply to the whole of Highlands Region.
PNG Power will construct 448 transmission towers from the three provinces to meet the demand of its consumers.
PNG Power recently signed the MoA in Hela and Southern Highlands for the multi-million kina power project to begin. The main sub-station will be in Mt Hagen, and then power will be distributed to all of Highlands region.
The Ramu Grid will be limited to supplying power to Lae, Madang, and parts of Eastern Highlands, due to much of its machines being old and needing maintenance.
