Charter for Renewable Energy Based Rural Electrification With Participation of Private Enterprises: Providing Electricity to Rural Fiji

This report was prepared by Herbert Wade for the Fiji Department of Energy. 

Rural Electrification has been placed at a high priority in Fiji. Although good progress has been made through FEA grid extensions and through stand-alone generators provided under the DOE 1993 Rural Electrification Policy, there remain large areas of Fiji that do not have access to electricity. Most of these areas cannot be economically reached by the FEA grid and other forms of electrification will be required. The Department of Energy (DOE) is addressing this problem through the development of strategies and plans designed to increase the rate of rural electrification in Fiji through the private sector and the use of renewable energy. A two-year project on “Promoting Sustainability of Renewable Energy Technologies and Renewable Energy Service Companies in Fiji” supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) through UNDP is presently underway which will result in the necessary legal and structural framework for large-scale rural electrification using renewable energy. The mechanism that will be used to deliver electrical services to rural areas is through the use of private businesses organised as Renewable Energy Service Companies (RESCOs) supported and regulated by the DOE.

This Charter describes the structure needed to create a public-private partnership in order to dramatically increase the rate of rural electrification in Fiji. RESCO