EFL apologises for power outage
Energy Fiji Limited says it took its engineers and technicians almost three hours to normalise power supply to its customers in the Central Division on Viti Levu after a major outage last Sunday (April 22).
And it has apologised to its customers for the power disruption that started at 3.30pm.
“A mynah bird had bridged (created a short circuit connection) the high-voltage phase connections of one of the two 132,000/33,000 Volts transformers at Cunningham Road Substation, affecting the 132,000 Volts extra high-voltage transmission network,” said EFL chief executive officer Hasmukh Patel.
“The 132,000/33,000 Volts transformers at Cunningham Road Substation are part of the 132,000 Volts extra high-voltage transmission network, which spans the centre of Viti Levu inter-connecting the electricity networks in the Central and Eastern Regions to the Monasavu and Nadarivatu Hydro-Electric Schemes.
“Power supply to customers affected by the disruption at 3.30pm in the Central Division was normalised through the other 132,000/33,000 Volt transformer at Cunningham Road Substation, by 4.30pm, as EFL technicians and engineers isolated and inspected the faulted 132,000/33,000 Volts transformer at Cunningham Road Substation. “At 4.48pm, EFL engineers and technicians completed all inspections on the isolated 132,000/33,000 Volts transformer at Cunningham Road Substation and attempted to put it back into service. “When this transformer was switched back on, mysteriously thereafter, both the 132,000/33,000 Volt transformers at Cunningham Road Substation went out of operation causing a power supply disruption to all customers in the Central and Western divisions of Viti Levu. “By 6.25pm, EFL had restored power supply to all its customers in the Western and Central Divisions of Viti Levu, affected by the second power disruption at 4.48pm.
“EFL is investigating the cause of the intermittent failure of both the 132,000/33,000 Volt transformers at the Cunningham Road Substation.”