April 01, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 23, 1429

RAWALPINDI, March 31: A Chinese company has agreed to set up a 525MW thermal power plant near Sheikhupura with an investment of $355 million.

An agreement to this effect will be signed at the Prime Minis-ter’s Secretariat in Islamabad on Tuesday between China’s Dong Fang Electric Company and the Pakistan Electric Power Com-pany (Pepco).

The Dong Fang company is already setting up a 425MW thermal power plant in Nandipur, Gujranwala.

The agreement will reflect the new government’s desire to overcome electricity shortfall, a Pepco press release said on Monday.

In accordance with the prime minister’s directives, Pepco was initiating various reforms to make the power sector more efficient and customer friendly, it said.

The company is enhancing generation capacity by rehabilitating the existing plants and accelerating IPP generation during the current year.

In order to manage the demand, Pepco plans to save 1850MW during the year throu-gh energy conservation initiatives, loss reduction, theft control and load management.

A comprehensive energy conservation campaign has already been launched to save 1000MW.

The press release said that Pepco had saved 500MW throu-gh the conservation campaign.