The National – By JEFFREY ELAPAPNG

Power Limited said last week it has no binding agreement with anyone to develop a coal powered generator in Madang province.

The company denied that the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) it signed recently with a Naima Investment was for construction to begin on a coal-powered generator in Madang.
PNG Power Limited (PPL) and Indonesian power company Naima Investment signed an MoU on June 12 for the development of a new 250MW coal-fired power station in Madang to supply power to the booming mining industry.

Since this announcement, many people concerned about the dangers coal pose to the health of people and the environment have voice opposition to the project.

Reacting to this, acting chief executive officer Tony Koiri said in a statement last Thursday that the public had been misinformed as PPL had not given any binding undertaking to the developer to develop the plant.

Mr Koiri said the MoU was to assist the potential developer investigate the particular power generation option.

He said that PPL would be derelict in its duty if it did not consider all the options available before making the significant financial commitment. Mr Koiri said PPL was also interested in the major generation development for the Ramu Grid proceeding under a private public partnership arrangement and if approached by a private company with a generation proposal, PPL would provide logistical support to enable their proposal to be fully investigated.