IESCO declares 71% feeders free from load-shedding

CEO says company faces hurdles while recovering bills in AJK

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco) Chief Executive Officer Basit Zaman has announced that 71 per cent of feeders in the company’s jurisdiction have become free from load-shedding whereas 291 feeders are still facing outages.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Zaman said following the federal government’s directives, Iesco had made its 744 feeders, with less than 10 per cent losses, free from load-shedding.

These feeders, which provided electricity to 1.94 million consumers, were earlier facing three to four hours of load-shedding. Iesco’s 163 feeders, which serve 702,873 consumers and have 10-20 per cent losses, will face two hours of load-shedding compared to three to four hours of outages earlier.



Similarly, 16 feeders with 20-30 per cent losses will also face two hours of load-shedding as opposed to the earlier six to eight hours.

Eight feeders, which suffered 30-40 per cent losses and had 10 hours of outages, will now face outages for four hours only. For 12 feeders, with 40-60 per cent losses, the duration of load-shedding has now been cut down to six hours from 12-16 hours. Outages on 69 feeders, with 60-80 per cent losses, have been slashed to eight hours from 18 hours.

Regarding power supply, Zaman said the government was providing electricity to Iesco in line with its demand, but the company was forced to carry out load-shedding in some areas due to certain reasons including theft, losses and management issues.

As soon as losses came down in any feeder, it would be added to the above category, he declared.

“The government has given us targets for bringing down the losses and we are taking steps to achieve these and make the Iesco region 100% load-shedding-free,” he added.



He revealed that 91 feeders with losses above 50 per cent were in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) where Iesco was encountering problems in making bill recovery.

In response to a query, Zaman said AJK owed Iesco Rs59 billion - the highest among the company’s receivables. Recoveries from government departments were satisfactory at 94 per cent.

When asked about purchase of 60,000 faulty meters as reported by the Auditor General and whether the company took any action against the people involved in the scam, Zaman category denied the procurement of faulty meters and termed the auditor’s report wrong.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2017.

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