ISLAMABAD:
Federal Minister for Power, Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari, has urged the World Bank to provide funds and investments for the installation of smart meters at transformers at the distribution level to bring transparency and to address unfair load management due to micro-level losses.
He spoke with World Bank Vice President for South Asia Region Martin Raiser, who met him here with a delegation on Friday, a press release said. Federal Minister for Petroleum Division Dr Musaddiq Malik also participated in the meeting.
Explaining the importance of smart meters at transformer level at distribution level, the federal minister said that at present smart meters are being installed at household level and grid level and this has helped in well respects. However, without the installation of smart meters at the transformers, the desired efficiency and fair load management for a particular area cannot be guaranteed, because at present the entire power network must deal with equal load management, which is no comfort to efficient consumers. He said these smart meters can also be useful in managing peak demand.
Leghari also invited the World Bank to invest in public-private partnership mode in smart meters at LESCO and MEPCO as a service provider. He informed that these distribution companies are next on the list of privatizations.
He informed the delegation that due to the Bijli Sahulat package, electricity consumption in the industrial sector increased by 7% in December 2024 compared to last year for the same period, indicating an appetite and appreciation on the part of consumers for any future auction of surplus electricity. in the country.
The minister also presented all the initiatives undertaken by the Energy Division in the sector with a view to improving efficiency, financial discipline, autonomy in decision-making and reducing electricity tariffs. for domestic and industrial consumers.
He informed that the power sector will soon enter the multi-buyer, multi-seller market and the CPPA will no longer remain a single buyer as it has already been prevented from entering into any other agreement in this regard. The principle of competitiveness and affordability will govern the production and distribution of the electricity sector, he added. In this regard, the Wheeling Charges are almost being finalized.
He also assessed the delegation on recent initiatives to provide single electricity connections with distribution and billing collection rights to industrial zones and special economic zones, eliminating monopoly and intervention of employees of distribution companies at all stages.
