FAISALBAD, Oct 28: The Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (Fesco) will revamp its various grid stations at a cost of $35 million being provided by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), says Fesco chief executive Ahmad Saeed Akhtar.

Talking to reporters here on Tuesday, he said the up-gradation of 13 grid stations would be initiated soon. He said the company was already spending Rs1.2 billion annually on its distribution network and no grid station in its jurisdiction was overloaded.

He said Fesco had inked agreements with Shakar Ganj Sugar Mills, Jhang, Chistian Sugar Mills, Sillanwali, and Ramzan Sugar Mills, Bhowana, to purchase 22 megawatts (MW) of electricity to bridge demand and supply gap.

A 450MVA transformer was being installed at 500-KV Gatti Grid Station and a 200MW rental power plant was being established on Summundri Road by private sector which would become operational by Feb next year.

The chief executive said the company was supplying electricity to traders and industrial sector on priority basis. Relief was immediately being passed on to consumers, especially industrial consumers, to continue production and generate economic activity.

About loadshedding, he said that unscheduled power outages had been stopped on the directives of federal water and power minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf.

He said Fesco would extend facility to its consumers to pay bills without late payment surcharge in case banks refused to accept 60 per cent of the billed amount.

About demonstrations against outages, he said that these demonstrations were not limited to Faisalabad and the president and the prime minister had taken quick decisions to redress genuine grievances.

He said the government was implementing a comprehensive short, mid and long-term strategy to overcome power shortage.

Under the short-term programme, 1,000MW rental power plants would become operational from January to April next and loadshedding would be controlled by the end of 2009, he added.

Akhtar regretted over the increasing loadshedding and said that the situation was now improving gradually.