By GEORGINA MICHAEL
THE K100 million additional funding committed to PNG Power Limited (PPL) under the 2026 supplementary budget is yet to be paid, according to PPL chief executive officer Paul Bayly.
Mr Bayly made the announcement during a press conference to address the challenges facing PPL during the El Niño season and explain the need for emergency load shedding.
He said PPL’s ability to fund urgent maintenance, purchase fuel and carry out critical upgrades was being constrained by unpaid electricity bills.
Mr Bayly acknowledged the Government’s K100 million funding commitment but said the money had not yet been received by PPL.
He said government departments and agencies currently owe PPL about K230 million, including approximately K67 million for electricity consumed this year but not yet paid for.
He noted that these outstanding balances from government directly affect PPL’s ability to carry out remedial works, including the transmission upgrade needed to increase the supply from Dirio into the Port Moresby grid.
Mr. Bayly said the Department of Finance and the treasury administers payments to the government’s electricity accounts, not individual departments and agencies.
He called on the government to immediately settle K230 million in unpaid electricity bills, warning it may disconnect defaulting departments and agencies.
“I’m calling on the government to immediately settle these overdue accounts. In the absence of payment from government, PNG Power will have no option but to begin disconnecting defaulting government departments and agencies to recover the outstanding bills.”
Mr. Bayly highlighted that PPL is doing these to fairly have everyone pay for their bills because there are so many people that are paying their bills and are being subject to load shedding because of those that are not paying their bills.
Mr. Bayly said that PNG Power recognizes the hardship caused by prolonged outages and apologizes to paying customers affected by this load shedding exercise.
“Our teams are working to restore generation, strengthen transmission capability, and manage our limited supply as fairly as possible. We ask our customers to conserve electricity where they can and to follow official PNG Power notices for load shedding schedules and restoration updates.” Mr. Bayly concluded
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