Lahore Electric Supply Company’s project of replacing old PC-metres with new digital metres is not working perfectly and the company has failed to meet the deadline of replacing all three-phase metres by December 2011, sources in the company told Pakistan Today on Tuesday.
Sources said the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) had told the Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) to replace all old three-phase metres with new digital metres by December 31, 2011. All metres, including domestic, commercial and industrial, were to be replaced. However, LESCO could not meet the deadline and has requested the NEPRA for extending the deadline till June 2012. Sources said a number of reasons like shortage of funds, low manpower and lack of interest of the company’s employees caused the delay and LESCO had now promised NEPRA that the task would be completed by June 2012.
The replacement of the old electromagnetic metres is part of government plan to determine different tariffs for evening and morning times. Those users who would get digital metres would be charged dual tariffs. For example, if electricity is consumed during peak hours (6pm-10pm) then the tariff would be more than Rs 13 and in other timings the rate would be low. The measure was taken to reduce the consumption of electricity during peak hours. The sources said LESCO would be installing around 300,000 metres by June 2012. The project of replacing old metres with newer ones was started in May 2010 and so far, the company has managed to install 175,000 metres. “The company in two years could only replace 6 percent of metres and in coming six months it is almost impossible that LESCO could achieve the task of replacing all metres,” an official of the company said adding it seems LESCO would ask for further extension in the June 2012 deadline. He said the main hurdle in completing the task was availability of funds, as one metre costs around Rs 8,000-20,000. He said LESCO was replacing these metres without charging any amount from the old consumers while only new consumers have to pay for these metres.
Another reason of delay in achieving the target was lack of interest and human resource in LESCO. “Besides replacing metres, the company has to perform other tasks like replacing old lines and accommodating public complaints therefore it is hard for the employees to show performance on all fronts,” the senior official of LESCO added. LESCO Customer Service Director Khalid Mehmood did not attend phone despite repeated contact.
