Papua New guinea has an area of 464 840 km² and a population of 4.3 million.

Water resources

The total mean annual precipitation volume is 672 km². The national authority in charge of water resources is the Bureau of Water Resources, Policy district Interim Commission is in charge of the region. There are two large dams in operation.

Energy and power sector

The main sources of electricity in PNG in 1995 were: hydro(75 per cent )and diesel oil (25 per cent). The major priorities for the future are to use the country's hydro, natural gas and oil resources.

Per capita electricity consumption is 138 kwh/year total, and 28 kWh/year for domestic consumption.

Only 4 Gwh was privately produced in 1995, of 514 GWh of total power production of 689 GWh, 514 Gwh of which was hydro.

Hydropower development

The gross theoretical hydropower potential of PNG is 175 000 GWh/year(20 000 MW); the technically feasible potential is 122 640 GWh/year(14 000 MW); and the economically feasible hydro potential is 36 800 GWh/year (4200 MW). All these data were re-evaluation in 1994. So far, only about 1 per cent of the technically feasible potential has been developed, and 4.3 per cent of the economic potential.

There is 162.4 MW of hydro capacity in operation. Of 262.4 MW total powerplant capacity. Hydro plants generated 514 GWh in 1995.

A further 16 MW of hydro capacity is planned, at the toe of Yonki dam.

There are 10 small, mini and macro hydro plants(of less than 2 MW) in operation, with a total capacity of 19.8 MW. No further small hydro development is planned.