Acting Minister for Infrastructure Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has today confirmed that the Fiji Electricity Authority will carry out a major capital project in the next five years where a second electricity grid will be constructed from the Monasavu Power Station.
Sayed-Khaiyum has revealed in Parliament that this project will cost them $US100 million.
He says this is the kind of capital input required at FEA to prevent any lightening strike stopping people from getting any electricity.
Sayed-Khaiyum has also clarified that generators take time to kick in during lightning strikes as generators carry a lot of loads.
NFP’s Prem Singh had asked Sayed-Khaiyum to explain the total output of electricity from all generators purchased by FEA to date and why are the generators unable to meet the electricity demand during power blackouts.
Sayed-Khaiyum says the total maximum power generation from FEA is 239.89 megawatts whereas the maximum total demand load is 177.12 megawatts.
He stated that this is the electricity generated from all generators and clarified that generators are not only driven by diesel.
He told the Parliamentarians that when there is a blackout, it will take time for electricity to come back as in the past they never had redundancies built in.
Sayed-Khaiyum says the main grid goes from Monasavu to Vuda and then to Suva and when there is a lightning strike, they do not have any redundancies.
