The Ministry of Public Works has ramped up efforts to widen electricity access, announcing $12.7 million in investment for the 2024–25 financial year to extend 50 grid schemes that will reach an estimated 1,200 households nationwide. Minister for Public Works Ro Filipe Tuisawau said the programme was accompanied by a separate $14 million allocation to install 1,000 solar home systems, which the ministry estimates will deliver clean power to nearly 5,000 people across various regions.
“Progress continues to be made in this area,” Tuisawau said, highlighting the Rural Electrification Fund as a central mechanism for scaling up connections and drawing private-sector capital into renewable energy projects. The minister told reporters the fund’s efforts are supported by a UNDP-backed funding agreement of $91 million, a signal that international partners are backing Fiji’s push to broaden off-grid and on-grid access.
The package for 2024–25 represents the most concrete set of rollouts announced to date, combining traditional distribution extensions with household-level solar systems. Ministry figures show the 50 grid extensions will target communities still awaiting reliable mains connections, while the 1,000 solar home systems are intended to supply distributed, clean energy where grid expansion is less feasible or would take longer to implement.
Looking ahead, the ministry has also signalled this work will continue into the next fiscal year. For 2025–26, about $10 million has been earmarked to fund 29 new grid extensions expected to benefit some 951 households, and a further $2.5 million will be invested in additional solar home systems. The two-year outline underscores a dual approach: expanding the national grid where possible while accelerating off-grid solar uptake to speed access and lower reliance on fossil-fuel generation.
The announcements come amid a wider national conversation about the cost and stability of electricity. In recent months there has been heightened public attention on tariff settings and on the broader shift toward renewables to reduce exposure to global fuel price swings. The ministry’s deployments of solar home systems and the establishment of the Rural Electrification Fund are intended to complement longer-term investments in renewable generation and grid infrastructure by creating more immediate access points and attracting private capital.
Ministry and UNDP officials have described the $91 million agreement as catalytic finance designed to make small-scale renewable investments bankable and to lower the entry barriers for private developers and financiers. The announcement did not detail the rollout schedule for the UNDP-supported projects or the precise funding mechanisms, but it frames the rural electrification push as a partnership between government, donors and private investors.
As the ministry moves from planning into implementation, attention will turn to where the grid extensions and solar home systems are deployed, the pace of installations, and how the new connections interact with broader energy-sector issues such as pricing, network upgrades and longer-term renewable targets. The recent allocations give a clear signal that electrification remains a government priority, pairing household-level clean-energy solutions with conventional grid expansion to broaden access across Fiji.
Leave a comment