The Moitaka Power Station in Port Moresby is back in operation boosting power supply to the city after PNG Power Limited (PPL) announced the recommissioning this week. The Moitaka Power Station which was established in 1980 has been a reliable source of electricity in Port Moresby for several decades until it was decommissioned in 2019 after several Independent Power Producers (IPP) were introduced into the Port Moresby Grid. Initially, the Moitaka Power Station had a station output of 16 Megawatts (MW) from two Hitachi Zosen Z40 Diesel Engines (Unit 1 & 2). It was later increased to the capacity of an additional 15 MW with the installation of a GE LM2500 (GT2) and had two Mirrlees Blackstone MK16KV Diesel Engines (Unit 3 & 4) added with an individual capacity of 8 MW each. The Moitaka units are high-inertia thermal engines with a significant rotational mass. This means that they can store energy and respond slowly to changes in demand, making them suitable for stabilizing the grid. Their characteristics make them suitable for the Port Moresby grid application, where they can complement hydro generation. Although hydro generation is a renewable and flexible source of electricity, it depends on water availability and environmental factors. High-inertia thermal engines can provide backup power and grid stability, especially during peak hours or emergencies. The decision to recommission the Moitaka Power Station was made after thoroughly analyzing the Port Moresby grid's energy needs. Despite the decommissioning of the Moitaka Power Station in 2019 to focus on PNG Power's "Least Cost" and "Fuel Switch" plans, other energy sources could not regulate the grid. As a result, the PNG Power Board made the decision to recommission the station in the last quarter of 2022. Furthermore, on the 19th of this month, the Moitaka Unit 3 was made available and can now be safely dispatched with 6MW of power. The recommissioning of the Moitaka Thermal Power Station will provide much-needed backup power and stability to the Port Moresby grid. PPL is committed to ensuring that the Port Moresby grid has sufficient backup power and stability when required. The recommissioning of the Moitaka Thermal Station is a significant step towards achieving this objective. According to Deputy Chief Executive Officer of PPL, Mr. Nehemaiah Naris, who was present to start up the first recommissioned unit, thanked all the stakeholders for their contribution towards a successful recommissioning of the Moitaka Power Station, especially the hardworking PPL restoration team. The PPL restoration team will now work towards restoring Unit 4 to bring additional capacity to the Port Moresby Grid in the coming months. In addition to this, PPL is confident that the recommissioning of the Moitaka Thermal Station will improve power reliability in the Port Moresby Grid. PPL remains committed to providing reliable and affordable electricity to its customers.

Papua New Guinean’s relationship with other nations including China, will not be impacted in any way from a Defence Cooperation Agreement that will be signed with the United States (US), as the agreement is merely to protect the country’s waters from illegal activities. Prime Minister (PM) James Marape when addressing the media this week, made it clear that the country’s bilateral relationship with other nations will remain the same despite the upcoming defence agreement, which is for the Ship Rider Program where local law enforcement officers are allowed to embark on U.S. Coast Guard vessels, including boarding and searching suspected vessels. “I want to give assurance to our country; it is nothing to be skeptical about. This agreement doesn’t stop us to relate to other countries in as far as having similar treaties or similar defence cooperation with all other nations around us,” said PM Marape. “I just want to inform everyone that it will be transparent. Parliament will be privy to what we are signing.” “At the moment our entire foreign affairs team has been leading the negotiations and we’re at a stage where we’re almost at the signing.” He said the Ship Rider Agreement doesn’t mean a full-on military involvement or changes to legislations affecting bilateral relationships, it is to secure the coastal areas, the high seas and the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) in PNG waters from illegal activities like drug trafficking, human trafficking, illegal fishing and sea piracy. The agreement is expected to be signed by the US Secretary of State Mr. Antony Blinken during the upcoming Forum for India- Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) in Port Moresby.  

The trade and investment opportunities with one of the biggest economies in the world, India will be one of the focuses of Papua New Guinea (PNG) to explore during the upcoming Forum for India- Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC) in Port Moresby. Prime Minister (PM) James Marape when updating the country on the arrival of the foreign delegates for FIPIC, said PNG is anticipating the arrival of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will be engaging in important dialogues with pacific leaders. PM Marape said India is an important economic power in the world in the Asian market and to foster stronger relationship with it would mean PNG benefiting in a big way; hence, the FIPIC meeting is an important opportunity for the country to tap into that market. “Papua New Guinea, we are privileged to have India as a partner and this is the first time ever that India Prime Minister is stepping into our country and for us it has opened a third dimension into our geopolitical relationships,” said Marape. “It opens up a place for market, for commerce, for trade, and for sourcing technical capacities as far as bilateral relationship is concerned.” PM Marape said the FIPIC meeting, the main reason for the pacific leaders coming to Port Moresby, is going ahead as scheduled and within budget. Marape also urged the people to embrace the leaders coming to PNG in true Melanesian way. Meanwhile, the Indian PM along with the New Zealand PM are expected to arrive this weekend with PM Modi to arrive on Sunday 21st May. Caption:

After ten years in the resource sector local landowner company KutMor Limited now looks at venturing out of the Oil and Gas business and into other business areas. The landowner company (Lanco) recently marked its 10th Anniversary in Port Moresby where it looked back on the years of its operation and the contributions to the landowner groups that make up the shareholders of the company. The Lanco’s Deputy Chairman Mr. Nelson Alina said KutMor is not only focused on creating wealth but build its capacity to provide opportunities like employment for the future generation of Moran and Kutubu landowners, when the oil and gas projects cease in the future. “We are going in that direction by taking a step each day to move out from the oil and gas focus business to other business interest outside of the oil and gas project area.” KutMor is a local company owned by the Incorporated Land Groups (ILG) and others who are directly impacted by the Kutubu, Moran and Mananda areas, located in the Southern Highlands and Hela Provinces.  The Lanco was formed as a direct result of meetings by landowner leaders and Lanco leaders in late 2011 and early 2012. The company is structured into 14 share classes each representing a discreet geographic area either within or in a buffer area in close proximity to the existing Petroleum Development Licenses (PDL) 2, 5 and 6.

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.”

The Minister for International Trade and Investment is adamant to have the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Policy and Master Plan set and ready launched for the country by mid this year. Minister Richard Maru, when giving an update on the policy and master plan after the inaugural SEZ Summit recently, said that both items are a work in progress at this stage. “The secretary went through the initial drafts at the summit, we got a lot of good comments coming through so we working on fine tuning the initial draft and hopefully by next week, we’ll put a new version of the draft on our website and ask for more comments from the members of the public.” He said once the policy is finalized it will be taken to cabinet for approval before the policy is taken to parliament and then make it available through its launching. “We are keen on bringing the policy by June along with the master plan for the 10 year development of SEZs in Papua New Guinea (PNG).” “We are also working on a revised legislation that we have to have completed so that after June, we’ll bring it to NEC (National Executive Summit) and parliament. Minister Maru said the country can expect a new amended Act, a new SEZ Policy and a new SEZ Master plan deliver between July and August of this year.

The PNG Power Limited (PPL) exercise to disconnect illegal power connection to easipay meters through a by- pass or direct connection to a building without the use of a meter box, is to come up with a better way to deal with the matter going forward. According to Mr. Damien Kaputin, the Acting Manager Meter Audit Low Consumption of the Retail Division of PPL, this work is done in conjunction with USAID as part of the United States assistance to achieve Papua New Guinea’s reach of electricity of 70% by 2030 as per the government's goals. He said from this exercise, a proper working process should be put together to deal with this particular issue going forward, including taking legal action on those who steal power from PNG Power through illegal connection. “That’s the next step that the company (PPL) is trying to go through, and we have our USAID team, the consultants who are here who assist on the legal end of it to discourage customers doing illegal reconnections without paying up their back bills.” He said there are about 50 customers that PPL will check again after disconnecting them previously for illegal connection. These 50 are just part of over a thousand in the same situation, but this batch would be used to make assessments as to what actions to take, what needs to be changed and how to properly address this going forward. The outcome will come in the form of a report that will be later discussed between PPL and USAID and the state, on the solutions to this problem going forward. Yesterday's  exercise saw about six homes in Gerehu in Port Moresby disconnected again after the landlords and owners of the premises reconnected the power illegally. PNG Power loses 25% of revenue each year to power theft alone, in addition to the other loses like from outstanding bill payments and from transmission loss.

The government is ready to partner with viable companies operating in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) projects in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru, said that this partnership will be in the form of government investments in the companies with funding already made available by the government. “The government this week approved funding, which is already in the budget for this year, of K100million for government to take up shares in companies, in particular in the Special Economic Zones that we feel we need to support to get investment across the line, or bring in much needed capital to start or grow their investment that are important for the country.” Maru also explained that this funding doesn’t mean that the government will be making investments in all SEZ projects because there could be some projects that would need government funding. “I want to make it clear to the country that not every SEZ project would require government equity funding, only those that we feel we need to get across the line because the country needs that sector to move or exports to be in place or we need downstream processing. That’s when the government may consider investing in a number of companies using the state equity fund of the government.” He explained that the government would put the capital as an investor in a company through Kumul Consolidated Holdings (KCH). “It’s an investment fund that the government will use for strategic investments that we believe are very important to this country.” Meanwhile, the first project that the state will invest in going forward in the SEZ space is the massive Rigo Rice project in the Central province.     

Member for Moresby South Justin Tkatchenko has stepped aside from his position as the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Prime Minister (PM) James Marape made the announcement late on Friday afternoon that the Foreign Affairs Minister, Justin Tkatchenko has stepped aside from his Ministerial portfolio with immediate effect following public uproar after a tiktok video from his daughter Savannah Tkatchenko was circulated widely on social media. The Minister’s defense of his daughter drew further harsh criticism from the public over the poor choice of words used to show his frustrations. PM Marape announced that he will oversee the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the interim, and that includes making sure that the preparation towards hosting the Prime Minister of India, the President of the United States, the Prime Minister of Fiji, and all other Pacific Island leaders go ahead as planned. “I want to commend the Minister for putting the interest of the country ahead of his own. I also want to apologise to his family, and especially his daughter Savannah for the traumatic experience over the last couple of days. No woman deserves to be treated the way Savannah was treated over the last few days.” The Prime Minister acknowledged that the Minister did what any father would do, but his responsibility as an elected leader and a state minister required that his conduct and words must remain exemplary and above board at all times. “In that regard I announce to the nation that I will take charge of the foreign affairs ministry and ensure that all the preparations for the upcoming historical visits remain on track in the next few days until our first visitor touches down on Thursday, 18 May 2023.” The Prime Minister also thanked Minister Tkatchenko for the preparation work done thus far and said he will ensure that all work is progressed with a multiagency effort so that we make our country proud when our visitors come on shore beginning next week.

Rigo Rice, perhaps the biggest successful rice project in Papua New Guinea (PNG), is the main one amongst six other projects to get their licenses this year to operate as a Special Economic Zone (SEZ). Minister for International Trade and Investment, Richard Maru, said that Rigo Rice in the Central province has set a benchmark for the rest of the projects to venture into a large-scale project that can be turned into a SEZ that would generate employment for thousands and contribute to the economy going forward. “Rigo Rice, they are already an existing project and they have spent a lot of money and all they need is the support from government, So, Rigo Rice is one that we think will be given the highest priority to be assisted to be licensed this year. Other SEZs in line to get receive their licenses this year are the KCH led manufacturing SEZ in the Central province, the Lae Port SEZ, PMIZ in Madang, the log processing zone in Central province, and an Inland Port SEZ in Markham Valley in Morobe province. “Basically, those six could get their licenses before the year is up and I will be working with them and the secretary and the SEZ Authority to make sure they meet the requirements to be given license.” Minister Maru said after the successful SEZ Summit this week, these six SEZ projects mark the start of more to come for the country. The minister said already there has been interest coming in from groups and landowners from parts of the country to start their own projects and be part of a SEZ.

The efforts put into Papua New Guinea better having access to trade and foreign investment opportunities has just been complemented with the launching of the National Trade Portal, the Export Readers and Investment Guides.The three were launched by the National Trade Office (NTO) in Port Moresby in a significant ceremony witnessed by the Minister for Internal Trade and Investments Richard Maru and the Deputy Prime Minister John Rosso.The Chief Trade Officer Mr. Richard Yakam said the portal and the guides are what will give the right information to portential investors about PNG, it's market, its SMEs and potential to trade with countries.Minister Richard Maru added that the launching has now increased the chances of PNG further in trade and Investments."We are interested in trade and investments that will anchor our future," said the minister."Our focus is to look for investors in SEZ, the fisheries, forestry, in the energy space and tourism.""We want to double the size of our economy by 2030," he said.Maru stressed that in the next decade, the country's economy should be doubled further with expected investments and trade to countries like China, which he said is the main focus of trade right now.Minister Maru also made it clear that he has now interest in geopolitics and would trade with any country that is willing to buy PNG goods.

The Simbu provincial government is ready to move forward with the development of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Karamui after reaffirming its commitment to work with the Department of International Trade and Investment to get the project off the ground. That commitment was in the form of K1million presented to the department during the inaugural SEZ Summit held in Port Moresby this week. Simbu Governor Noah Kool said the funding is from the provincial government because they want to see this happen for the province. “We want this to happen that’s why we got the landowners of Karamui, the district administration, the provincial administration, and the members involved,” said the governor. The Vice Minister Assisting the Prime Minister and Member for Chuave James Nomane, said that the K1million from the Simbu provincial government through the Ministry of International Trade and Investment, is for the feasibility study for Karamui SEZ. “This money is for us to shortlist the firm that will go in there and undertake the feasibility study to tell us exactly what crop will bring the biggest value for money, will grow well in Karamui, and that would directly impact the internal revenue in Simbu.” Meanwhile, the Principal Advisor for Agriculture Simbu Mr. Eric Gore said the SEZ project should also bring in a lot more other services like roads into Karamui, which would make the SEZ a success. “Karamui is located south of Kundiawa town, it’s a fly in and fly out zone because there is no road link connecting Karamui LLG to the headquarters of Simbu province,” said Mr. Gore.