Tonga Power Ltd TPL will drop its electricity price by more than one seniti per unit from 1 December, John van Brink the CEO announced today at the Popua Power Station, Manumataongo Bay, Nuku'alofa.

The price of electricity will then drop from $0.9173/kWh to $0.9057kWh.

He said that during the year they have been trying to keep the price of electricity stable, while the price of diesel fuel fluctuated.

They had proposed to the Electricity Commission, Tonga's electricity price regulator, for a drop in the price of electricity by more than one seniti and last week the price reduction was approved for 1 December.

John said the drop in the price of electricity was made possible by the combination of a drop in the price of diesel fuel, along with renewable energy input into the electricity grid from the Vava'u and the Maama Mai solar farms, and from the Nakolo wind mill. Tonga Power was also working to reduce the loss of electricity during transmission.

Tonga's reliance on imported fossil fuel for its electricity supply has been an issue for a number of years and so far the two renewable energy options being developed are solar power and wind power.

Tonga’s government has set a timeline for a 100% reliance on renewable energy sources by 2020.

"It will be a very hard task," said John, who believed that it would cost $250 million for Tonga to become totally reliance on renewable energy and at the same time it must also be prepared to invest several more millions on industries to capitalize on that energy source. This compares to the existing Tongatapu diesel power generator, worth $10 million.

With regards to the powerpoles maintenance, John said that the local power poles sourced from ‘Eua were cheaper but shorter than the imported poles. All the tall poles had to be sourced overseas.

Cabinet

Tonga Power Ltd. has been under fire from anonymous critic in October. The Tongan Cabinet received an anonymous letter calling for an investigation of Tonga Power's operation.

However, John said today that there was no investigation. He also expressed his disappointment that Cabinet had actually considered an anonymous letter.