PNG Power Warns State Agencies of Cuts Over K200 Million in Unpaid Bills

Papua New Guinea’s state electricity utility has launched a nationwide disconnection drive for customers with overdue bills, including government agencies, according to a 4 November report by local newspaper The National. The paper estimates that public agencies owe PNG Power Limited (PPL) about K200 million. The company has warned customers that electricity can be cut unless they settle their accounts; the reporting does not establish that any named government office has already been disconnected.

The National reported that the exercise began on 3 November and is scheduled to run until 31 December 2026. It cited a PNG Power notice addressed to credit-meter customers, a group that includes businesses, government departments and large residential compounds. According to the notice as reproduced by the newspaper, reconnection would require payment of overdue bills and a reconnection fee. The paper also said total outstanding customer arrears could be as high as K400 million. These figures are estimates of bills owed, not audited losses or evidence of theft.

The warning follows a public dispute over unpaid government electricity accounts. In an independently reported 8 October interview, PNG Power chief executive Paul Bayly told The PNG Bulletin that departments and agencies then owed approximately K230 million, including around K67 million for electricity used during 2026. He said a K100 million supplementary-budget allocation for the utility had not yet been received at that date. The October K230 million and November K200 million figures are from different dates and reports; no account-level reconciliation has been published in the material reviewed, so the difference should not be interpreted as confirmed debt recovery.

The government has acknowledged wider problems at the utility. In a 10 March statement, the prime minister’s office said James Marape had called for a breakdown of PNG Power’s estimated annual losses exceeding K200 million, including non-payment, technical losses and electricity theft. That annual-loss estimate is a different measure from government agencies’ unpaid bills. In an August statement, Marape also described ageing infrastructure, poor revenue collection and rising costs as challenges and outlined plans for structural reform.

The immediate public-interest question is how the disconnection campaign will affect essential public services. PNG Power’s own customer guidance says critical facilities such as hospitals, water supplies and emergency services are prioritized for restoration during outages. That guidance does not establish whether those facilities are exempt from debt-related disconnections. No agency-by-agency arrears schedule, formal exemptions or list of completed cuts was verified for this report.

The next documents to check are PNG Power’s original November disconnection notice, an updated government debtor ledger, Treasury payment records, any essential-service exemptions, and verified disconnection or reconnection outcomes. The reported collection campaign should not be confused with separate planned or unplanned electricity load shedding caused by generation and transmission problems.