ISLAMABAD, Nov 11 (APP): Minister for Power Engineer Khurram Dastgir on Friday said all electricity meters installed at Rawalpindi Cantonment and Rawalpindi City Circle are being switched to Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) in first phase with an estimated cost of $ 95 million.
Addressing at launching ceremony of AMI project here at Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO), the minister said new technology is being introduced to reduce power sector losses, enhance quality of billing and recoveries and control power load-shedding and address consumers complaints of over billing.
He said Asian Development Bank (ADB) has provided $ 170 million financial assistance for the AMI project which would help round the clock monitoring of meters. All power distribution companies (DISCOs) have already been directed to install AMI meters on all industrial, commercial, bulk power supply and agriculture connections in order to ensure round the clock monitoring of the meters, he said.
He said AMI system would help identify areas of power pilferage and power losses. The system would also be installed at all high losses feeders and transformers in all DISCOs, he said.
The minister said earlier, AMI system was installed at Multan and Lahore Electric Supply Companies at very limited level.
He said performance and issues of DISCOs were thoroughly reviewed in August and September. The IESCO AMI system would be replicated in other DISCOs, he added.
Khurram said that on the directives of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, all out efforts were being made to reduce cost of electricity so that maximum relief could be given to the consumers.
He said the government was going for bidding of 600 MW solar energy projects by the end of this month or in December so that costly power plants could be replaced with cheap power generating resources. All government owned building were also being switched on solar energy, he added.
Earlier, IESCO Chief Dr Amjad, in his welcome address, said that the project was launched with the assistance of ADB and it would completely end human intervention besides bringing transparency in meter reading.
He said mobile application was also being introduced for monitoring the daily, weekly and monthly consumption of electricity on meters.
He said IESCO has around 3.4 million consumers while the data centre set up at the headquarters has capacity of 5 million.
He said that the government has already directed DISCOs to installed AMI systems on all industrial and commercial sectors by June 30, 2023.
Later, the CEO thanked the minister for extending support to IESCO for launching AMI project and presented him souvenir.
Chairman IESCO BODs Engineer Qamar Islam and other senior officials were also present on the occasion.
