The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Power Distribution Programme has successfully implemented its Load Data Improvement Programme in Government Owned Power Distribution Companies (DISCOs).
The programme aims to minimize unscheduled load shedding.
The USAID’s statement said that currently, Pakistan faces a serious power crisis which is gravely affecting its economy and society.
With each passing day, the country is plunging deeper into the crisis; already the electricity shortfall has hit record levels.
Citizens daily bear 12 to 16 hours of load shedding, with the expectation that it might increase in the future.
Unfortunately, DISCOs lack the capacity to manage planned load shedding, mainly due to unpredictable loading, mediocre communications systems, manual implementation and ineffective monitoring systems which do not make real-time loading information available.
This project aims at installing Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) devices at all incoming and outgoing feeders of the grid stations in all 9 DISCOs across Pakistan.
The AMR devices are being installed on a fast-track basis in all DISCOs including Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (FESCO).
The project also includes upgrading each DISCO’s Power Distribution Center (PDC). FESCO’s PDC was upgraded and made functional on May 30 2013, with live data now being acquired from all of its grid stations and feeders.
This data would help the FESCO PDC operators to continuously monitor the real-time load of its power distribution system, and will consequently enable monitoring actual loads for optimum load management.
This project would alleviate the public’s miseries by a massive reduction in unscheduled load shedding.
The USAID Power Distribution Program is a five-year long USAID funded project. Through this program, the US government provides assistance to the Pakistani government in its efforts to reform the power sector and mitigate the current energy crisis.
