September 06, 2008	Saturday	Ramazan 05, 1429

ISLAMABAD, Sept 5: The Asian Development Bank will provide a $810 million financing facility to the country’s power sector.

The funds, to be released in several tranches over 10 years, would support the $5.2 billion Power Distribution Enhancement Investment Programme (2008-2017), said an ADB statement issued here on Friday.

The country’s national power sector is currently short of generation capacity and suffers from insufficiently-maintained transmission and distribution systems, resulting in supply interruptions. System losses of distribution companies range between 10 and 33 per cent above the international best practice.

The ADB funding will support the ongoing power sector reform programme designed to provide a safe and reliable supply of power, meet an annual eight per cent growth in GDP from 2005 to 2015 and expand power coverage to rural areas.

“A secure and predictable electricity supply will lead to social and economic benefits and improve conditions for schools, hospitals and other social services,” said Rune Stroem, principal energy specialist at the ADB Central and West Asia Regional Department.

The bank’s investment programme will focus on the distribution sector which is burdened with worn-out and overloaded infrastructure, power losses, capacity shortfalls and other constraints.

It will help distribution companies to provide an additional 12,000 gigawatt-hour (GWh) of electricity to meet an expected peak demand and give 30 million more people access to power from the national grid.

The programme will ensure timely subsidy payment by the government to distribution companies.

It will also improve financial management and corporate governance standards in distribution companies and help attract more private firms to invest in the sector.