By Emmanuel Narokobi

The National newspaper ran a story today on PNG Power upgrading it’s electricity generation infrastructure (read it below also) and it reminded me of a trip I did to a little town called Moruya, N.S.W. Australia in 2004. A family friend’s company was running some trials through a consortium whose goal was to provide a technical means to extend basic telephone and broadband data networking to service remote rural communities in Australia. The great part about this initiative was that they had communications services running inside existing powerlines. Yes that’s right, voice and data signals traveling within the power cable!

In our case that would mean Telikom running communications services in PNG Power’s power lines to access rural areas in PNG. The PNG Power article, stated that ‘…PNG Power’s maintenance and upgrade programmes include installing of nine hydro units in three locations and 19 diesel units at 15 locations throughout the country…’

Considering that a part of this programme is also for establishing rural electrification, in one hit we could have both power and basic telephony in the rural areas of PNG. The diesel units may be isolated from the main power grids, but why not have Telikom VSAT’s connect in those areas.

In terms of payments the Post Offices, local trade stores and/or churches could be used as payment centres for power and phone bills at the same time. But with a pay-as-you-go system like our current Esi-pay system in the towns. This would ensure that rural people pay for just what they need to use and nothing more. And since you have communications in the villages because of the powerlines you could probably even use your Kundu Card to pay for bills. (And then the internet will also come into demand).

A joint service like this would be some serious ‘power’ to the people! Nothing fancy here just basic telephony and power for a house in the village. I’ve seen this working with my own eyes so I know this is possible, I even called my father in Port Moresby and the service was just like any normal landline. ‘Sigh’…sometimes I wish I was a billionaire so that I could have the power to try these ideas myself.

—————————————-

Some related website links:

Below are video’s taken from my mobile phone. Not great quality but it gives you an idea of the setup. They were demonstrating to me the powerline capabilities onto a laptop, a telephone and a TV set.

———————————————————————

THE NATIONAL - PNG Power Ltd is keeping its power generating facilities in top form to provide uninterrupted electricity supply to household and commercial users. Although the volume of work involved is large and costly, the power firm is carrying out a major capital works programme to ensure continued power generation.

PNG Power chief executive Patrick Mara told a breakfast forum yesterday maintenance was being carried out to increase the capacities of current power stations so there is enough supply for consumers. For example, the Moitaka power plant has the capacity of 36MW but it is currently operating at 16MW. “Currently, power generation is not enough to meet demand and this is a serious issue,” he said.

PNG Power’s maintenance and upgrade programmes include installing of nine hydro units in three locations and 19 diesel units at 15 locations throughout the country. For 10 transmission lines alone, it will cost the company K10 million. Mr Mara said although “financial performance has improved” the cost of doing business for the power company is way above the K100 million mark due to high cost of diesel prices. “This is a horrendous cost and any profits we make are re-directed back to generating power.”

Seventy two per cent of its income comes from its 80,000 consumers, and 14% from industrial consumers. Under its capital works programme, PNG Power will upgrade its key existing systems generation projects. The key projects are refurbishment of Ramu 1 hydro power station, installation of Ulagunan power station to supply Gazelle area in the New Guinea Islands, Lae power station which will involve the installation of an 18MW power plant and Madang power station which will involve the installation of 4.5 MW power plant.

Refurbishment will take place on transmission lines from Port Moresby to Rouna 2 hydro power station, Ramu to Madang, Ramu to Goroka to Mt Hagen and upgrade of Gazelle transmission line at Warangoi to Kokopo. With substations and switchyards, the Kanudi, Boroko and Konedobu substations in Port Moresby and the substation at Rabaul will be upgraded and the Milford substation in Lae will be refurbished.

The Rouna 2 hydro power station is 40 years old and has a capacity of 30MW. And its refurbishment scheduled for completion in early 2009 is aimed to maintain hydro power supply and decrease reliability on the Hanjung power Kanudi plant. This exercise will cost K118 million. PPL will spend K123 million to refurbish 16MW Yonki Dam power station which will supply the Hidden Valley project. It has 135km 132 kV transmission line to connect to grid and is refurbishment is expected to be completed in 2008.

The Ramu hydro 2 power station has a capacity of 240 MW and it is conditional upon agreement to supply the Ramu nickel project in Madang. A new generation of power plants that will take three years to construct will cost K1 billion. For NCD projects under the capital works programme, it will cost K5 million for a capacity of 5MW.

On the rural electrification programme, the National Government has allocated K65 million in the budget for next year. This year, the power company spent K10 million of its own funds for rural power projects.