EDITORIAL

Switch off, save electricity - 1-Nov-2008

THE Fiji Electricity Authority (FEA) has again reiterated that Viti Levu faces a critical energy crisis with the falling water level of the Monsavu Dam, lack of adequate rainfall to feed the dam and the high cost of back-up diesel generation. The low to average intermittent rainfall over the past three months has made the situation worse.

A mere average 4mm of rain per day versus a dam outflow of 0.15 to 0.20 meters, and a current 7-metre buffer pre-critical dam level, are very worrying figures. There is not enough back-up diesel generation to maintain current electricity demand for Viti Levu consumers. The high fuel price has made this option a bad one.

The third week of November is being forecasted as the critical stage when the FEA has to take drastic actions like power rationing to ensure there is no national blackout. This is serious. It’s not an issue to be taken lightly, particularly as the modern world we live in breathes and eats electricity!

We have come to take electricity for granted. The nature of electricity as an ever flowing current of energy and the custom of using this energy by a mere flick of switch has many of us fooled that it’s infinite. Electricity works like those torch batteries – it gets used and it does run dry.

And Fiji is running dry of power, as the FEA continues to punch out the dreaded figures and Monasavu’s receding water level. There is nothing we can do about rainfall. But there is something we can all do to take the pressure off Monasavu. We can switch off electricity that we don’t need. One of the often invisible factors in our energy crisis, but one which can be very effective in either continued power or blackout, is consumption.

The increase in demand for electricity is also a natural upward trend due to population growth/aging and increase in the use of and dependence on electrical goods. The modern home now is crammed with all sorts of household gadgetry and machinery designed to make our lives less tedious, yet very high on electricity usage. Increased income levels and cheap Asian imports have made electrical appliances more affordable to the average Fiji household.

The electric gadget revolution has increased our energy consumption levels to heights of unsustainability considering our limited power sources. For example when you have 500,000-plus mobile phones being recharged on a weekly basis, that’s massive power being chewed up. Consumer and some interest groups, now and again throw a glut of criticisms against the FEA, but more often than not they forget the hand of the consuming public in the whole energy equation.

Consumers need to share much of the responsibility for our high electricity use and the pressure being placed on Monasavu and other energy sources. We need to put those switches off when we don’t really need to use those appliances. And while using electricity, we need to take into consideration that we are all consuming from one source of limited power.

Apart from consumers, the government needs to step in and address this crisis at policy level and through some urgent action to assist the FEA in its awareness campaign. While the FEA has consistently done its part via media notices and advertisements, the state institutions have largely remained silent or non-active. What we need is a nationwide campaign involving not just the FEA, but the Ministry of Energy, Education, Information and other arms of government. This energy crisis is a national one and the burden is on all of us to address it.



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