Papua New Guinea could lose the approved US$2 billion Ramu 2 hydro power project if it is further delayed.
One of the world’s top energy company – China’s Shenzhen Energy Group, who won the bid for the project in 2015, has raised concern that it has been four years since the approval to proceed the project.
The Post-Courier was told yesterday that the former O’Neill government under former State Owned Enterprise Minister William Duma approved the project but awaited specifics and was to do the final documentation and agreement when the government was changed three months ago.
The project site in PNG is located downstream from the existing Yonki dam, and as Kumul Consolidated Holdings termed it –“game changer” when completed will be capable of generating 210 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy. Executives of the Shenzen Energy Group yesterday could not further elaborate on the latter but advised they were concerned about the lack of urgency hindering the project kick off.
The hydro project in PNG, the Ramu 2 scheme, which is located downstream from the existing Yonki Dam on the Ramu River near Kainantu in Eastern Highlands Province is $2bn, 180-MW project and is expected to boost the facility’s capacity by 194 per cent to hit 273 MW and boost PNG’s total generation capacity by 36 per cent. It is being developed under a PPP model in partnership with China’s Sinohydro Corporation and Shenzhen Energy Group. Executives of the Shenzen Energy Group Kwame Wang and Jianjun Li said the delay in kick starting the project which was originally planned to begin construction on the project in 2017 was now taking its toll.
Shenzhen Energy Group Company Limited, formerly Shenzhen Energy Investment Company Limited, is one of the main power generation companies in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.
It is involved in developing all types of energies, researching and investing high new energy-related technologies. Huaneng Power International is now the second largest shareholder of Shenzhen Energy.
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