12th August 2016 A team from Tonga Energy Sector were in New Caledonia from 23rd – 29th July, 2016 for technical visit to Renewable Energy sources of New Caledonia including Solar Farm, Hydro Dam and Wind Farm, as well as visits to the Generation Control System, Transmission Network and Network Management of the whole New Caledonia.
New Caledonia is one of the leaders in the Pacific with respect to renewable energy generation and the presence of modern technology in its electrical system. This certainly provides a perfect platform for modern developments of Tonga Power Utility Company (TPL) and the Energy Sector as a whole.
The Tonga delegation was led by the DPM, Hon Siaosi Sovaleni, and includes the CEO for MEIDECC, Director of Energy, CEO for Tonga Power Limited, Generation Manager of TPL and an officer from Energy Department.
L-R: Mr. Tevita Tukunga, Mr. Murray Sheerinn, Hon. Siaosi Sovaleni, Mr. Emmanuel Vincent, Mr. Robert Matthews, Mr. Paula Ma’u
The visit was also an opportunity for the Deputy Prime Minister to meet the French High Commissioner for New Caledonia, Mr. Thierry Lataste and the President of the Government of New Caledonia Mr. Philippe Germain as well as the Minister of Environment and Climate Change with a view of forging a good relationship with New Caledonia for future mutual cooperation.
Highlighting this visit was Synergie, who accepted to help TERM achieve its objectives by collaborating with the Kingdom of Tonga to develop solutions to comply with TERM’s requirements by providing assistances in various Energy Sectors such as Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency, Waste Management, Transportation, and also assist in developing projects and implementation, public private partnership (PPP) for funding project and procurement support. Additionally, this collaboration could cover future developments of energy sector know how for both territories and pooling of resources & sharing data for joint projects, it would also provide training programs for staff in relevant sectors. Tonga is looking forward on creating a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Government of New Caledonia to formalize this relationship before moving forward to next phases.
The visit, upon an invitation for the Government of New Caledonia, was agreed by Synergie Ltd, an association of Energy utilities of New Caledonia, and funded by French Government regional cooperation fund for the Pacific.
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Issued by the: Ministry of Meteorology, Energy, Information, Disaster Management, Environment, Climate Change and Communications