ISLAMABAD:
Federal Minister for Power Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari has urged the World Bank to provide funds and investment for installation of smart meters at distribution-level transformers to bring transparency and account for unfair load management due to micro-level losses.
He spoke with the visiting World Bank Vice President for South Asia Region, Martin Raiser, who met him here along with a delegation on Friday, a press release said. Federal Minister for the Oil Department Dr. Musaddiq Malik also attended the meeting.
Explaining the importance of smart meters at distribution level Transformers, the Federal Minister said that right now smart meters are being installed at home and grid level and it has helped in many ways. But without installing Transformers level smart meters, the desired efficiency and just load management for a particular area cannot be ensured as the whole feeder has to face uniform load management right now, which gives no comfort to efficient consumers. He said these smart meters can also be useful in managing peak demand.
Leghari also invited the World Bank to invest in public-private partnership mode in smart metering in LESCO and MEPCO as a service. He informed that these distribution companies are next on the privatization list.
He informed the delegation that due to the Bijli Sahulat package, there is a 7% increase in power consumption in the industrial sector in December 2024 compared to last year for the same period, indicating an appetite and appreciation among consumers for any future auction of surplus electricity in the country.
The minister also presents the entire stock of initiatives undertaken by the Power Division in the sector leading to efficiency, financial discipline, autonomy in decision-making and reduction of power tariffs for private and industrial consumers.
He informed that the Power Sector will soon enter the muti-buyer and multi-seller market and CPPA will no longer remain a single buyer as it has already been stopped from entering into further agreements in this regard. The principle of competitiveness and affordability will govern the power sector’s generation and distribution, he added. In this regard, wheeler charges are almost being completed.
He also appraised the delegation about the recent initiatives to provide one-point electricity connections with distribution and billing collection rights to industrial areas and special economic zones, eliminating the monopoly and intervention of distribution company employees at all stages.
