USAID continues to support HESCO

A team of USAID officials led by Ms. Melissa Knight, USAID Energy Office Director, visited Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (HESCO) to discuss the ongoing projects of USAID for HESCO and received briefing from the CEO HESCO, Muzaffar Ali Abbasi about the performance of HESCO.
The projects undertaken by USAID Power Distribution Program for HESCO were also discussed and results achieved so far were presented by HESCO. The USAID team along with HESCO officials then planted a tree at HESCO employee colony, says a press release.
The CEO of HESCO Muzaffar Ali Abbasi thanked and greatly appreciated the assistance provided by USAID to HESCO under the USAID Power Distribution Program and expressed his wishes for strengthening cooperation between the USAID and HESCO on Automatic Meter Reading (AMR), linemen safety training, capacity building and institutional development trainings for HESCO officers and staff. He further said that presently the key requirement of HESCO was institutional improvement through capacity building and training and requested USAID to help in that through its Power Distribution Program.
The USAID director of energy, Melissa Knight appreciated the performance of HESCO. She specially appreciated HESCO’s extension of linemen training. USAID has already trained more than 400 linemen of HESCO.
Melissa Knight was accompanied by Rosario Calderon, Senior Energy Advisor and staff of USAID Power Distribution Program including Mr. Saleem Arif, Deputy Chief of Party, Bob Dalton, Linemen Training Advisor and Zia Ur Rehman, Director Communications. HESCO team included CEO Muzaffar Ali Abbasi, Habibullah Shaikh, General Manager Operations, Liaq Ahmed Khan, GM Technical, Muhammad Bachal Laghari, Chief Engineer Planning, Ali Anwar Jokhio, Director HR and Admin, Mahmood Ali Kaimkhani, Manager Commercial, Tufail Ahmed Shaikh, Principal Regional Training Center, Jamshoro, Syed Imran Ali Askari, Manager Admin, Mr. Din Mohammad, Deputy Director Finance and Muhammad Sadiq Kubar, Public Relations Officer HESCO.
The three-year USAID Power Distribution Program was announced by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2009 as one of the U.S. efforts to support Pakistan Power Sector. Through this program, the U.S. Government provides support to Government of Pakistan to reform the power sector to mitigate the current energy crisis. The program is helping government-owned electric power distribution companies (DISCOs) improve their commercial performance in reducing losses, increasing revenues, and improving customer services by introduction of new technology and improved work practices.