May 30, 2007	Wednesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 13, 1428

LAHORE, May 29: Most of the power distribution companies (Discos) have reduced their line losses and now total system losses of Wapda stand at 20.9 per cent on April 30, 2007, says chairman Tariq Hamid.

Presiding over a periodical review conference of the chief executive officers (CEOs) of subsidiary companies of the authority, he appreciated the efforts of CEOs in this particular area as line losses had been reduced by almost 3.5 per cent since 2003-04.

The reduction in line losses became possible due to concerted efforts by Wapda officials for improving and augmenting its transmission and distribution system through a sustained development programme costing more than Rs21 billion, he said.

Mr Hamid expressed his satisfaction over the required release of water by Irsa, which had helped generate maximum electricity through hydel power.

He, however, said water supplies would improve after June 15, which would enhance hydel production and result in reduction in the duration of loadshedding.

The chairman said various development projects worth Rs17 billion were under way for improving the system and hoped that consumers would get electricity with better voltage and less interruptions after the completion of these schemes.

In addition, 25,570 transformers had been added, replaced and augmented till April this year, which also helped improve efficiency of the distribution system, he said.

The chairman told the meeting that Wapda had collected a revenue of Rs220 billion during July 2006-April 2007 showing an increase of about Rs19.6 billion as compared to the corresponding period of 2005-06.

However, the delay in payments by some of the provinces and particularly by Fata and KESC was regretted.

He told the meeting that 811,960 new connections were given during this period in various categories, including those of 11,153 agriculture tubewell.

Reviewing the implementation of energy conservation programme, Mr Tariq Hamid asked all the Discos to strictly adhere to the load management plan already announced by him, giving due regard to the improvement in weather during recent days.

The meeting was also informed that distribution companies had already started passing on the impact of good weather to their consumers by reducing the duration of load management to almost half.

The chairman also emphasised that the load management programme should be carried out evenly in urban and rural areas as announced earlier.

Evaluating the impact of energy conservation plan, it was noted with satisfaction that almost 500-550MW are being saved daily and this has become possible owing to the support of industrial, commercial and domestic consumers.

Mr Hamid asked all the Discos to ensure distribution of electricity bills well before the due date so that consumers could get a reasonable time for payment.

He asked all power generation companies (Gencos) to ensure full capacity utilisation of their plants by following a properly chalked out maintenance schedule.