By RANOBA BAOA
Pernix (Fiji) Limited is the successful bidder to supply Fiji Electricity Authority’s 30MW Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) Generator for its Kinoya Power Station.
The additional generator set costs $60 million.
It was announced yesterday during an official contract signing between the two parties with witnessing stakeholders at the Holiday Inn Suva.
The United States-based company known as Pernix Group is a construction and power infrastructure company with integrated design and engineering capability.
In light of the event and things to come, Pernix Group chief executive & president Nidal Zayed said Fiji was in for great opportunities ahead.
Regional HQ
“Fiji we feel from our perspective is really on the cusp of significant growth and investment opportunities for itself, for its people and for companies,” Mr Zayed said.
“Because of how we feel, we’ve decided that our regional headquarters will be located here in Fiji and we will use our resources to expand as we have been.
“That’s because of the faith that we have in the Fijian people and the prospect of the Fijian future. And we’re excited to be a part of that.”
Partnership
Authority chairman Nizam-ud-Dean said the authority was confident of the deal having shared previous partnerships with Pernix in recent years.
“Our relationship as far as Pernix goes is a lot further back. We’re very comfortable with the decisions we have made by our independent consultants,” Mr Nizam-ud-Dean said.
He said the move was essential to meet the demand of power supply for the Suva area as the load increases over time.
“Once we sign, they move. They actually have to build a totally new power station not just putting machines in an old station,” he added.
“This is a totally new building, new machines so it’ll take them something like about two years and hopefully the sooner the better because we’d like to see this to come into service.
“The machines that we have now ordered through Pernix hopefully will pay for themselves in the savings of having fuel costs within three years.
“If we shut down the ones that are running on IDOs and ran this HFO machine, it’s a three-year pay back. I think in anybody’s book that’s a very good commercial return.”
Why invest?
Authority chief executive, Hasmukh Patel said: “The mission of FEA is to promote renewable energy so one might wonder why we are here assembled today (yesterday) to sign the contract with Pernix for the establishment of a fossil fuel power station.
“But the fact of life is that while we develop renewable power stations you still need to develop diesel to make sure that you are able to meet the increased demand in electricity in Fiji.”
From left: Pernix Group chief executive & president, Nidal Zayed, Pernix (Fiji) Limited general manager, Michel El-Rahi, Fiji Electricity Authority chief executive Hasmukh Patel and authority chairman, Nizam-ud-Dean at Holiday Inn Suva yesterday. Photo: JUSTINE MANNAN