Study tour: Disco officials to visit power plants in US

A team of senior planning and engineering officials from power distribution companies (DISCOs) will visit power utilities in the US for a week.

This is the fifth study tour for DISCO officials organised by USAID under its Power Distribution Programme. “Planners and engineers will return to the country with practical ideas to improve DISCO operations, reduce losses and, ultimately, to make sure consumers have a more reliable supply of power.”

Relieving Pakistan’s energy crisis is a top priority for the US. In addition to improving DISCO operations, the US government funds large-scale infrastructure efforts.

These include the rehabilitation of Tarbela and Mangla dams and Jamshoro, Muzaffargarh and Guddu power plants as well as the construction of the new Satpara, Gomal Zam and Kuram Tangi dams.

These projects are expected to add 900 Megawatts to the national power grid by 2013. This is equivalent to 20 per cent of the country’s energy shortfall and constitutes enough energy to power 2 million households and businesses.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2012.