ISLAMABAD: A recently completed US government-assisted pilot project will help the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) save Rs1.3 billion annually by overcoming the issues of theft, billing problems and power supply in the provincial capital.

Under the project, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) installed 157-km anti-theft cable and 5,000 smart meters in various areas covered by Pesco, including Chamkani subdivision, which had been reporting approximately 60 per cent revenue loss worth Rs1.3bn annually, a press release said on Monday.

Smart meters operating on a central wireless internet system make accurate billing easier and improve customer service.

Additionally, the USAID introduced an innovative online transformer monitoring system that will enable Pesco to conduct real-time energy accounting and proactively take corrective actions. This is a first-of-its-kind system for a government-owned power distribution company in Pakistan. With the dependency on technology in today’s world, energy has become more important to our daily lives, the press release added.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2021