ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday was apprised that for the first time in the country’s history, the target of 23,000 megawatt power supply was achieved and would be increased to 26,000 MW next year.
Minister for Energy Omar Ayub Khan, Special Assistant Nadeem Babar, Special Assistant on Information and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Chairman Investment Board Zubair Gilani, Secretary Power Division Irfan Ali and other senior officials attended the briefing, according to a press statement.
The secretary Power Division said that special attention was being paid to issues such as public complaints regarding inflated bills, load-shedding, increase in tariff, prices of power, and the prevalence of corruption.
The prime minister was told that about eighty per cent feeders throughout the country would be made free from power theft and losses which helped improved and uninterrupted power supply to various sectors within one year.
The prime minister stressed upon making the processes easier for investment and business and called for a timeline mechanism in this regard.
It was further added that with improvement in the supply system, attention was being paid to improving the power distribution system, this current year. Further decrease in load shedding would be observed from next year, and that financial problems of power distribution companies (Discos) would be improved.
The public complaints were reduced after their issues were addressed with special focus, the secretary added.
The briefing further added that completion work on renewable projects which had been facing delays since December 2017 was being expedited.
Work on the installation of AMI meters and an ABC cable was in progress. To address public complaints on transformers, they were being provided with the facility to purchase them from approved companies for which there would be no need to obtain ‘no objection certificate’ (NOC).
A pilot project under LESCO (Lahore Electric Supply Company) was making new connection easier, enabling consumers to calculate the used power price, apprising the consumers about the power price, timely information 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), it was told 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 3474.3 hours which was a clear success.
The prime minister appreciated the efforts of the power ministry for its efforts for improving the power sector.
