Reserve Bank of Fiji Governor Ariff Ali said any costs imposed on businesses will eventually be passed on to consumers.

This was his response when questioned by Fiji One News on the impact of the proposed increase in electricity tariff on people.

“I think it is a fine balancing act between what price should increase because it also means that EFL needs to be efficient and needs to produce more.”

Ali added that it is too early to indicate the impact of the increase, as it will only depend on the final increase, if any.

He said that the important thing is that people are interested and submitting their work.

“Once all the submissions are there, then FCCC will make a decision, but at this stage, it will be interesting to see what happens to the industrial and commercial customers.”

Meanwhile, in a press statement, EFL says the electricity demand in Fiji increased by approximately 9% in 2024, with forward projections indicating an average growth of around 5% per year.

Chief Executive Officer Fatiaki Gibson said demand is expected to rise from approximately 1.1 billion kWh to 1.9 billion kWh within the next 4 to 8 years, consistent with historical growth trends and national economic development and pending national and private investment pipelines.

“At current tariff levels, EFL’s ability to convert planned investments into actual infrastructure delivery is constrained. The national grid is already operating close to capacity, and under an N-1 operating scenario, where a major generation or transmission asset is unavailable due to maintenance or outage, the risk of power disruptions increases significantly.”

EFL highlighted that without a tariff adjustment, it will be unable to invest in new generation capacity, strengthen transmission and distribution networks, improve grid resilience and reliability and support future economic growth and connectivity.