Port Moresby Power Station (POM Power Station) was inaugurated by the Hon. James Marape, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, on 6 December 2019. The Power Station is the first ever utility-scale gas engine project in the country, and in addition to enhancing the reliability of the local electricity grid, it will reduce the need for importing diesel and significantly reduce the carbon footprint of Papua New Guinea’s energy generation.

The POM Power Station is a nation building infrastructure project developed by NiuPower, a partnership between Oil Search Limited (ASX: OSH) and Kumul Petroleum Holdings. The POM Power Station uses natural gas supplied by the PNG LNG project to feed six high efficiency reciprocating gas engines and generators. It has the capacity to produce 58MW base load power to the Port Moresby power grid through a new power line and substation network. This represents approximately 29 per cent of the installed capacity of the Port Moresby system, and since no diesel will be required, NiuPower anticipates that it will create annual savings of approximately 100 million Papua New Guinean kina (AUD$42 Million).

Clough, in consortium with Wartsila, was responsible for the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) to develop the POM Power Station near Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea.

Clough CEO and Managing Director, Peter Bennett, commented: “The Clough team’s outstanding performance in completing this project has been built off the back of over 30 years’ experience successfully delivering projects in Papua New Guinea. The POM Power Station was completed on time, and importantly, safely with no injuries or incidents to people or the environment, leaving a positive legacy to the local communities. This project is also contributing to the reduction of Papua New Guinea’s carbon footprint, and we are very proud of our role in it.” 

NiuPower’s CEO, Michael Uiari, commented: “This power plant is an extremely important addition to Papua New Guinea’s energy portfolio and will allow us to meet our economic and environmental targets for the project. We also appreciate the fact that the power plant was built according to the rather demanding time schedule, and again we thank both Wärtsilä and Clough for this.”