By RACHNA LAL
Cabinet has given its approval to the Fiji Electricity Authority (FEA) to purchase an additional 30MW Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) Generator sets for its Kinoya Power Station.
This is expected to improve the security and reliability of power supply to the Central Region of Viti Levu.
Cabinet based its decision on a submission by the Minister for Works, Transport and Public Utilities, Captain (Navy) Timoci Lesi Natuva.
Captain Natuva said the new generator sets will ensure that power disruption to all customers in the Central Division is at its minimum.
This would be so in the event of failure of hydropower generation at Monasavu/Nadarivatu or failure of the 132KV transmission line from Wailoa to Cunningham.
The Minister also said given the importance of this project, FEA will be funding this investment through domestic borrowing.
FEA gives reason
Fiji Electricity Authority chief executive, Hasmukh Patel, responding to questions during a press conference last week, gave reasoning for this purchase.
He used the transmission tower which fell because of soil erosion resulting in power sharing in Central Division last year as reason for making this request to Government.
“So the question is if in future we have one event like that, how will be able to meet the Central Division load?
“The reason we had black outs was because we do not have ample installed diesel capacity to take over,” he said.
“So while our mission is to 95 per cent renewable by 2015, on the other hand, you cannot avoid spending so much money in generating diesel power stations as back up.”
