Blacklock, speaking during the 2019 leaders' summit in Port Moresby last week, said that while Wafi-Golpu was not yet secured as an industrial customer, PNG Power was working closely with Wafi-Golpu Joint Venture to identify a solution with the least cost and a 99.9% reliability, The National newspaper reported.

 

"Securing Wafi-Golpu will act as a catalyst to develop the Ramu grid and also help with the electrification of Morobe province," Blacklock said.

 

"The revenue from connecting Wafi-Golpu is estimated at K350 million per annum at year 2030, which equates to a full third of existing revenues.

 

"Every US0.04/kWh reduction in sell price of power to Wafi-Golpu improves local equity participants returns by $750 million over the life of the project or around K90 million per annum. PNG Power can provide greater returns to the shareholders of Wafi-Golpu if we are supported to implement the right solution," Blacklock said.

 

Blacklock said the planned solution to Wafi-Golpu was:

 

• Improved hydro generation capability through refurbished and reliable private-public owned hydropower with operational support and new distributed hydropower from both independent power producers (IPPs) and PPL;

 

• Gas-to-power at gasfield and wired into the Ramu grid, including the redeployment of existing PPL-owned, diesel-fuelled gas turbines on to gas at Hides and development of greenfield gas-fired IPP developers just in time to meet expected demand; and

 

• Network upgrade and ongoing maintenance to provide uninterrupted supply on the Ramu grid by vegetation management and protection engineering.