In 2020, PFAN started to gain traction on network activities in the Pacific.
A series of round tables were held to engage with policy makers and donors and with private sector stakeholders, entrepreneurs, equipment suppliers and investors on energy access in Fiji. The meetings were formulated to identify the challenges for last mile electrification of remote pacific island communities in Fiji and as a way to structure financing solutions, leveraging the financing and risk mitigation potential of private sector investors and project developers.
As a result of these meetings, PFAN has forged a strategic partnership with the Fiji Rural Electrification Fund (FREF), which will see the 2 organisations cooperate on electrifying the ca 5% of the Fiji population currently without access to energy. This currently consists mostly of remote communities on outlying islands, which either have no access or are reliant on expensive and unreliable diesel power.
PFAN is working with FREF to create a 3 year strategic plan and an investment memorandum to help mobilise the necessary financing to facilitate the transition to distributed clean energy solutions. One of the options PFAN is working on together with FREF is the creation of a blended fund, which will incentivise private sector investment into small scale solar micro-grids and stand-alone solar systems utility-type operations on the Fiji outer Islands using a results based financing approach.
It is envisaged that this approach, if successful, could be rolled-out throughout the region and will help to expand private sector involvement in the off-grid energy sector in the Pacific, making energy generation and distribution operations more sustainable from commercial and environmental points of view and reducing dependency on government and donor funding.
Pacific Islands in 2020
Total Advisors
1
New partnerships established
2
Meet our Network in the Pacific Islands
Regional Coordinator – Peceli Nakavulevu
Peceli has spent a good part of his career working to assist communities in the areas of Rural Electrification and Energy Access and Sustainable Energy (Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency) in Fiji and the Pacific. He has a profound interest in private companies which engage in these areas and believes that home grown or Pacific renewable energy companies have had a big role in assisting people of the Pacific to improve their living standards. With this interest, he has joined a number of development partners in the region working towards supporting these private companies to excel and has taken up higher responsibilities for the betterment of the lives of the people of the Pacific.
Peceli is PFAN’s Incoming Regional Coordinator in the Pacific Islands and continues to work and encourage companies to push boundaries, whilst simultaneously assisting communities adapt to their respective environments.
