Shoreline Power

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In 1998, Shoreline Power signed a 10-year concession agreement with the Tonga Electric Power Board (the state-owned utility) to take over Tonga’s electricity generation, transmission and distribution system. Shoreline intended to upgrade and replace aging equipment, and to invest a total of 13 million pa’anga (US$6.5 million), but was not required to pay Tonga Electric Power to lease the assets. In September 2000, Shoreline took over generation and transmission in the Vava’u island group, and in February 2002, the company took over distribution and transmission in Tongatapu and also took over generation, distribution generation, transmission and distribution in Ha’apai and ‘Eua. By 2004, Shoreline was the sole supplier of electricity in Tonga. Shoreline Power was a subsidiary of the Shoreline Group, which in turn was owned Crown Prince Tupouto’a, along with two business partners. Shoreline owned and operated diesel generators, as well as distribution and transmission systems. By July 2004, Shoreline had purchased two new generators at a cost of 8 million pa’anga (US$4 million), increasing total capacity from 8.3 MW to 12.7 MW. In February 2005 Shoreline installed a new 3 MW generator, at a cost of roughly 6 million pa’anga (US$3 million), and had recently commissioned a new 1.4 MW generator at a cost of 1.5 million pa’anga (US$750,000). In May 2005, Shoreline offered to sell its assets back to the government after public protests calling for a return to government ownership. In July 2008, Tonga’s parliament approved over US$ 12 million to purchase the power company Shoreline from the King.