ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan was informed on Wednesday that for the first time in the country’s history, the target of 23,000 megawatts power supply was achieved, and that the supply would be increased to 26,000MW next year.
In a meeting held at the PM Office, the Power Division secretary said that special attention was being paid to address complaints regarding inflated bills, load-shedding, increase in tariffs, and corruption.
Energy Minister Omar Ayub Khan, Special Assistant on Energy Nadeem Babar, Special Assistant on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Board of Investment Chairman Zubair Gilani, Power Division Secretary Irfan Ali and other senior officials attended the meeting.
The prime minister was told that about 80 per cent feeders throughout the country would be made free from power theft and losses, which would help ensure uninterrupted power supply to various sectors.
The prime minister stressed upon making the investment and business processes easier and called for a timeline mechanism in this regard.
The secretary further informed that with improvement in the supply system, attention was now being paid to improve the power distribution network.
“A further decrease in load-shedding would be observed from next year, and that financial problems of power distribution companies (Discos) would be improved significantly,” he maintained.
He said the completion work on renewable projects, which had been facing delays since December 2017, was being expedited.
“Work on the installation of AMI meters and ABC cables is in progress. To address public complaints regarding transformers, the division has allowed the public to purchase transformers from approved companies, for which there will be no need for a ‘no objection certificate’.”
He said a pilot project, under Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO), was introduced to make the process of new connections easier, enable consumers to calculate the used power price, apprise the consumers about the power price and to inform them about load shedding and online bill payment facilities. “After its implementation, the system would be spread to other parts of the country.”
Briefing the prime minister about System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) and System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI), he said that last year, 1,379 power interruption cases were reported which had been reduced to only 108 in this year. The interruption duration had been reduced to 432 hours from 3,474.3 hours, he added.
The prime minister appreciated the efforts of the power ministry in improving the workings of the sector.
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