A major infrastructure overhaul work is underway to improve constant blackouts and load shedding issues in the industrial city of Lae.
This was announced yesterday by PNG Power limited (PPL) chief Executive officer Paul Bayly.
Bayly said transformative progress, in terms of an overhaul of its infrastructures to be able to deliver a more reliable, stable, and constant power supply to the second largest city of the country.
“Lae is switching on to a new era of energy reliability,” Bayly said.
“From high-voltage transmission lines to upgraded substations and new gensets, Lae city’s power issues will be greatly eased. As Lae continues to grow, PNG Power remains committed to supporting its development with robust and dependable energy infrastructure,”
This major infrastructure overhaul is part of a landmark upgrade to the Ramu Grid, jointly funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Government of Papua New Guinea. The initiative includes the Construction of a second 132 kV transmission line from Singsing to Lae via Erap.
It also includes the development substations and inclusion of transmission towers and the installation of new powerlines at Singsing substation, Taraka and Erap and Yonki.
The work is expected to be completed within the next two weeks 2–3 weeks.
Work has also been carried out at the Milford Haven Substation.
These upgrades are designed to dramatically improve the quality and consistency of power delivery, significantly reduce outages, and introduce critical redundancy to the Lae network.
This means faster fault recovery, enhanced operational stability, and uninterrupted service even in the event of a fault on the primary line.
