PM Imran Khan. PHOTO: PID
The prime minister said this on Wednesday during a briefing on the steps taken by the ministries of energy and power for facilitating public and easing different phases for doing business in this sector
Minister for Energy Omar Ayub Khan, Special Assistant to PM on Energy Nadeem Babar, Special Assistant on Information Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Board of Investment Chairman Zubair Gilani, Secretary Power Division Irfan Ali and other senior officials attended the briefing.
According to a statement issued by the PM office media wing, Imran Khan was apprised that for the first time in the country's history, the target of 23,000 megawatts (MW) power supply was achieved which would be increased to 26,000 MW next year.
The Power Division secretary said special attention was paid to issues including public complaints regarding inflated bills, load shedding, rise in tariff, prices of power, corruption, and policies safeguarding interests of self-centered elements.
The prime minister was told that due to these efforts, about eighty per cent feeders throughout the country have been made free from power theft and losses within one year. This helped in the provision of uninterrupted power supply to various sectors.
He said with improvement in the supply system, attention was being paid to improve the power distribution system in the current year. “Further decrease in the load shedding would be observed in the next year, improving the financial matters of power distribution companies (Discos).”
The secretary said public complaints were reduced after their issues were addressed.
He said work on renewable projects which had been facing delay since December 2017 was being expedited. The work on the installation of AMI meters and ABC cables was in the progress.
To address public complaints on transformers, they were being provided with the facility to purchase them from the approved companies for which there would be no need to get 'no objection certificate'.
The prime minister was told that a pilot project under LESCO has been started, making the process for new connection easier, enabling the consumers to calculate the used power price and know power price, timely information about the load shedding, and online bill payment facilities.
After its implementation, the system would be spread to other parts of the country.
Briefing about System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) and System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI), the secretary said 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. The PM appreciated efforts of power ministry for its efforts in bringing improvement in the power sector.
(WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM APP)
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