Full power restoration to all areas in Viti Levu could take up to a week - EFL CEO Patel

Full power restoration to all areas in Viti Levu could take up to a week - EFL CEO Patel

Energy Fiji Limited has slowly begun restoring electricity to critical areas such as hospitals and major health centres, water and sewerage treatment plants, town, cities and industrial areas while full restoration to all areas in Viti Levu could take up to one week.

This has been confirmed by EFL CEO Hasmukh Patel who says electricity has been restored to the CWM Hospital, Tavua Hospital, Ba Hospital, Lautoka Hospital, Nadi Hospital and Sigatoka Hospital.

Patel says strong winds caused damages to the electricity infrastructure, especially on the overhead lines cross arms and other associated accessories.

Patel adds that power supply in Viti Levu was affected and this meant that every metre of the power line has to be physically inspected, repaired where required, before it can be energised.

He says in order to energise the entire EFL network, they need to inspect the over 10,500km of the power network and over 102,000 concrete and wooden poles which includes steel lattice towers in Viti Levu.

All major towns and cities have electricity.

80% of Suva and Lami have electricity while the full restoration is expected to take place in 2 days.

75% of Nasinu has electricity which includes water and sewerage treatment plants, while the full restoration is expected within 3 days.

50% of Nadi has electricity which includes water treatment plants, Nadi Town, commercial and industrial areas and some residential areas while the full restoration is expected to happen by the end of the week.

Electricity has been restored to 60% of Lautoka which includes the City, commercial and industrial areas and some residential areas have electricity while the full restoration is expected within the week.

Nausori Town, Nausori International Airport and other surrounding areas have electricity restored however, 70% of the areas in Nausori is still without electricity.

70% of Navua, Deuba and Pacific Harbour has electricity while full restoration is expected within 3 days.

60% of Ba has electricity which includes Ba Town, the water treatment plants and some residential areas.

Patel says full restoration is expected within the week ahead.

The power supply has been restored to 30% of areas in Sigatoka which includes the town, surrounding areas while the full restoration is expected within the week.

Electricity has been restored to 30% of Rakiraki and Tavua.

Patel says it could take up to two weeks for electricity to be restored in Nadarivatu.

The CEO says some areas in Savusavu has electricity however, a few areas had to be isolated due to flooding and power supply to these areas will be restored as the water levels recede.

Some areas in Ovalau has electricity while full restoration is expected to take within 3 days.

He adds EFL teams at the various locations worked throughout Friday night while fine weather in most parts of the country yesterday allowed for swift restoration.

EFL has once again reminded the public to treat all broken power lines as live and to exercise appropriate precaution by staying away and keeping others away from all broken power lines.

He says rain associated with TC Sarai has helped with the inflows into the Monasavu and Nadarivatu Hydro Dams.