Namatanai Off The Beaten Path

The reason that I visited Namatanai, was to carry out some electrical checks on the new 200 Kilowatt mini-hydro project that was being built at Sohun, just a few kilometres from the village. This was one of a few such hydro projects in the country that was being funded by world development agencies in an attempt to make use of the local natural resources and to lessen dependence on diesel-powered generation.

The water turbine used at Sohun was of the not so common 'cross-flow' type made by the German company Ossberger. The main application of this type of machine is at locations where the 'head' is not very high, that is, there is not much difference in height between the water above the dam and the water that is delivered to the turbine itself. Here, one of the local Elcom staff from New Ireland is showing me around the site as wires from some of our test equipment are connected to the small generator. The latest news from Namatanai, 25 years after I was there, is that this turbine/generator combo has been out of service for several years due to technical difficulties of some sort.