St. Mathias Anglican Church, Pahu Kolofo’ou 14th November 2018 – Tonga Power Limited alongside New Zealand High Commissioner and The Asian Development Bank hosted the Ground Breaking Ceremony for the commencement of the Nuku’alofa Network Upgrade Project at the site at St. Mathias Anglican Church in Pahu Kolofo’ou.Tonga Power’s core objective is to reduce Tonga’s vulnerability to oil price shocks, and achieve an increase in quality access to modern energy services in an environmentally sustainable manner and accordingly to reduce its carbon emission footprint and importantly reduce the electricity tariff to the people of Tonga.
The Nuku’alofa Network aims to upgrade and modernize the electricity network in the Nuku’alofa Area in 5 phases which encompasses the 5 areas of Nuku’alofa. NNUP will help to reduce network losses, increase access to electricity, and provide safe and reliable electricity supply to approximately 8,472 households and businesses in the greater Nuku’alofa area. The project will improve TPL’s operating and maintenance capability.

The project is separated into 5 different areas of Nuku’alofa. Funding has been confirmed for Areas 1 from Government of NZ (NZD $11,000,000), Area 2 from Asian Development Bank (USD $6,800,000) and recently confirmed funding for Area 3 from United Arab Emirates (USD $3.5M).

The Guest of Honour for the Ground Breaking Event was The Acting Prime Minister – Honorable Semisi Sika alongside distinguished guests; Her Excellency Tiffany Babinigton-High Commisioner for New Zealand to Tonga, His Excellency Saleh Ahmed Alsuwaidi – United Arab Emirates Ambassador to New Zealand and Mr. Masayuki Tachiiri-ADB’s Regional Director for the pacific.