PNG close to getting electricity from Indonesia

7:58 pm on 1 March 2016

Papua New Guinea is a step closer to sourcing electricity from neighbouring Indonesia.

People from Papua New Guinea make frequent trips across the Indonesia border at Wutung

People from Papua New Guinea make frequent trips across the Indonesia border at Wutung Photo: RNZ / Johnny Blades

The head of PNG Power, John Yanis said the company was on track to bring electricity from Indonesia into West Sepik, the PNG province on the border.

Mr Yanis said the electricity was now at the border administration complex at Wutung, ready for PNG Power to utilise and direct through the nearby provincial centre of Vanimo.

He indicated that the PNG state supplier was making financial arrangements with a bank in order to reach agreement with the Indonesian supplier, PLN.

The newspaper, The National, reports that the two neighbouring governments would also have to sign off on the deal.

It could see PNG tap into a 2-megawatt power supply generated from diesel power plants in Waena and Yarmokh in Indonesia's Papua province, via West Sepik.

Furthermore, Vanimo-based Indonesian consular Elmar Iwan Lubis said that another power plant at Holtekampp in Indonesia's Jayapura city was also intending to supply power along the border by this year.

Get the RNZ app

for ad-free news and current affairs