[Source: Supplied]

Energy Fiji Limited is urging Fijians to exercise greater caution when disposing of waste and burning debris near EFL infrastructure.

This is following another incident that left thousands of residents along Ba and Tavua without power yesterday.

EFL Chief Executive Hasmukh Patel says the residents were without power supply for over 10 hours due to a fire lit near a wooden power pole carrying 33,000-volt power lines.

Patel has expressed frustration at the reluctance of individuals to admit responsibility for the fires.

EFL Chief Executive Hasmukh Patel 

“I was in the West last week, and you know, as I was driving along the road, there were so many fires already during the daytime, and I could see they were very close to our assets, you know, to the EFL power poles. But people are not in very plain language, they care two hoods. You know, what happens to our power pools, any inconvenience so many customers, they go without power supply. Because, in order to replace that powerful you know, we spend about $40-$50,000 you know, getting crews, putting the power the bar is already off, but getting all the equipment and material and all that, and by the time we erect, it takes about eight to 10 hours”

Hasmukh Patel during the press conference 

The EFL CEO emphasized the substantial resources required to restore power after such incidents, highlighting the time and costs involved.

“Yesterday, the power basically between halfway between Tavua and Rakiraki and all the Tavua town and all of Rakiraki the power went off at around 1 pm, and we were only able to restore the power 4:30 am this morning. So you can imagine the time it takes to gather man, equipment and resources, and then get to the site, and then put the power pole and all that”

Patel says that this latest outage is part of a worrying trend, with the Western Division experiencing at least six power outages in the past six weeks alone due to similar incidents.