July 27, 2006	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 30, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, July 26: Federal Minister for Water and Power Liaquat Ali Jatoi on Tuesday directed all power distribution companies (Discos) to come up with a solid plan to ensure proper supply of electricity to the consumers.

While chairing a high-level meeting of Discos and National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) here to review the countrywide power supply situation, Mr Jatoi asked Discos to avoid unannounced loadshedding. He directed all power distributors to inform the consumers in advance through media about loadshedding to avoid unnecessary embarrassment faced by consumers.

Secretary and advisor to the water and power ministry, member (power), heads of the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) and NTDC and joint secretary (power) were present.

The minister directed power distributors to utilise all available resources to ensure that people in urban and rural areas both faced an equal amount of loadshedding. So far, he said, the rural population had suffered a lot as in the rural areas loadshedding was more frequent compared to urban areas. The practise must stop now, he directed.

Mr Jatoi stressed that there should be a close liaison with industrialists to manage supply of power to industries according to a well-devised formula. The formula must streamline power supply to both domestic and industrial consumers, he said.

The Discos apprised the minister about the load management programme they were exercising in their respective areas. They said that due to system constraints they were compelled to manage loadshedding to save the overall system.

They were of the view that due to overloading on grid stations in hot weather and less generation of power due to water shortage, load management in the country had become indispensable.

In order to meet the gap between the supply and demand of power, there was an immediate need to install short-term power plants at Lahore and Gujranwala.

Mr Jatoi directed Wapda to take immediate steps to install thermal power plants at these places to increase generation before next summer.

He directed the chief executive officers of power-providing companies to work on a crash programme for upgradation and augmentation of 500, 220 and 132 KV and the local distribution system so that such types of bottlenecks do not appear next year.

He stressed on them to take immediate steps to reduce the quantum of loadshedding by taking all possible managerial and technical steps.