The Fiji Electricity Authority plans to restore power to all urban areas in the West by tomorrow evening.
With Cyclone Zena and two tropical disturbances now behind us, FEA will now continue with it’s rehabilitation works.
There wasn’t any major damages to FEA’s infrastructure over the last few days.
However, due to rising flood waters certain power stations in the Western Division had to be shut down.
“Ba Town has be recommissioned and as far as Nadi Town is concerned we have done a lot clean up to all our ground mounted substations that supplies Nadi Town and the work is almost shall I say coming to an end and it is very likely that we will be energizing Nadi Town this evening,” said FEA chief executive officer, Hasmukh Patel.
Patel adds FEA has already begun works to restore power to the urban and peri-urban areas.
“If it’s not damage as a result of those floods we will be inspecting today and hopefully if everything is intact then we should be able to get Rakiraki Town or at least the township is operating and the hospital,” he said.
The Central division had no damages reported however, the power outages were caused by certain glitches.
“Initially, the transformer had come on but then because of perhaps invest of moisture or water then we might have a trip down the line as the transformer picks up load. After a cyclone a lot of things are shaken up. Equipment wise and all. Even though we do repairs they do come on they may be some hidden defects in there which actually comes to surface a few days or weeks later and as a result of that we experience outages,” Patel added.
Meanwhile, an aerial survey was conducted this afternoon to determine the extent of damage in the Western Division.
The entourage was led by the Minister for National Disaster Management, Inia Seruiratu and Commissioner of Police, Brigadier General Sitiveni Qiliho.
Representatives from the Water Authority of Fiji, and the Fiji Roads Authority were also on board.
With places affected still inaccessible, the helicopter aerial survey will aid in providing a final damage assessment that will be announced later.