Pakistan has assured the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) that it will look into its proposed Economic Dispatch Model (EDM) to resolve various issues of the power sector. A USAID team led by Advisor Technical, Bob Collins gave a presentation on EDM to the ministry of water and power on Wednesday in order to improve the power sector. Minister for Water and Power Syed Naveed Qamar also attended the briefing. The main focus of the presentation was power system analysis, economic dispatch and fuel requirements, generation mix and financial impact of dispatch model and other related issues.
It is important to mention that the government has managed to carry out the loss mapping exercise in generation and distribution companies with the assistance of USAID. Many of the recommendations of the agency are already under implementation to improve the power system. The minister said the ministry would further study the proposed model as EDM will help to resolve various issues of power sector.
He briefed USAID team that efforts were being made to improve the power sector by reducing line losses and gap between demand and supply. The reforms in the power sector, outsourcing of public sector plants, construction of mega dams and hydel projects, measures to change the energy mix for cheaper energy, ending of circular debt, reduction in line losses and recovery of outstanding dues are were also discussed as the major policy parameters of the government to improve the sector.
