FIJI must accelerate investment in renewable energy and strengthen supporting infrastructure before widespread adoption of electric vehicles places additional strain on the national power grid, says Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association chief executive officer Fantasha Lockington.
Speaking at the National Budget Forum 2026 in Suva on Wednesday, Ms Lockington said supportive policies and incentives were needed to encourage greater use of renewable energy by businesses and households.
“We discussed the need to enable access to renewable energy through supportive policies or incentives for both commercial and domestic uptake to reduce the current pressure on the power grid,” she said.
Ms Lockington questioned whether Fiji’s electricity network was prepared for a rapid increase in electric vehicle ownership.
“We have electric vehicles being touted as the next best thing since sliced bread, but here’s a question for all of you.
“If 20,000 new electric vehicles suddenly get connected to the grid, could it cope, or will the light start going out in more parts of the country?”
She said the recent global fuel crisis had exposed Fiji’s slow progress in expanding renewable energy.
“And as the fuel crisis has shown us, we have not progressed renewable energy access to the levels that we know we should be at.”
Ms Lockington also highlighted the need to improve household resilience through greater access to water storage, saying Fiji should make better use of its natural resources.
“We are not empowering domestic households to save power through wider access to water tanks.
“It just doesn’t make sense that the Central Division gets the most rain, yet suffers the most water cuts.
