Power supply throughout Fiji will be fully restored in two to three months’ time, says Fiji Electricity Authority chief executive officer Hasmukh Patel.

Mr Patel said works were expected to be wrapped up by June.

Damages sustained by FEA infrastructure is around $23million.

As the country hastens back into some form of normality, safety was paramount at this stage, Mr Patel said.

“The power lines have been badly affected especially Tropical Cyclone Winston which had impacted Rakiraki, Ba, Tavua districts very badly  and therefore the damage to our electricity network has been most extensive in these areas and this will take a little bit more time and resources,” Mr Patel said.

“Sometimes people think that we can do all of this in a speed but we have to realise that this is something we cannot do in speed, it needs to be a done with a lot of caution.

“In case of erecting power lines from power poles we are dealing with electricity so we have to be cautious and safe and we have had injuries which we do not want to happen again.”

Most parts of the Western Division that were without power because of flooding should expect power restoration today.

Mr Patel said businesses affected by the flood at Nadi Town would not get power immediately because they would need to get their electrical contractors to repair the internal wiring.

“This needs to be done since the inside electrical wirings could have been damaged due to the intensity of the flood,” he said.

He said areas in the Western Division that were without power this week should still expect power outages in the next few days.

Line mechanic groups from overseas

Mr Patel said FEA required an additional workforce and machinery to expedite and complete repairs to the damaged power lines in these areas to restore power supply.

He said a request was made to India to deploy 50 line mechanics here and they were still considering it. Australia too was considering sending in help to the FEA.

Mr Patel confirmed that 15 line mechanics personnel from New Zealand were currently in Fiji to assist FEA restore power.

Meanwhile, a group of six qualified and experienced line mechanics personnel from Tonga Power Limited will arrive this weekend to assist FEA.

According to Matangi Tonga Online, Tonga Power will provide associated plant and equipment and two vehicles for the network restoration work. The team will be based in Lautoka.

Edited by Naisa Koroi

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