Costly electricity: FESCO says trying to compensate consumers through minimum line losses, uninterrupted power supply

FAISALABAD: Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (FESCO) is trying its optimum best to compensate its consumers for costly electricity through provision of best services, minimum line losses, uninterrupted power supply and other facilities, said Engineer Muhammad Aamir Chief Executive Officer (CEO) FESCO.

Addressing the industrialists and business community at Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI), he said that FESCO has been mandated to distribute electricity and recover its billing. “In this connection, best practices are being utilized,” he said and added that clear directives have been issued to eliminate the over-billing. He further said that the meter readers are bound to print the actual reading on the meter.

He said that holidays for concerned staff, falling on the meter reading dates have been cancelled; however 14,500 consumers suffered due to the Eid holidays on June 17-18. He said that their bills are being corrected accordingly.

He said that new transformers have been added in the system to provide uninterrupted electricity while faulty transformers are also being replaced on top priority basis. He said that earlier, only 6,000 D-rods were purchased while this year 17,000 rods have been arranged to immediately restore the electricity.

He said that FESCO has an acute shortage of staff and we are trying to reduce its impact by outsourcing different services. Responding to a question CEO said that the consumers getting sizable bills on the basis of minimum load, they must reduce their load according to their actual usages.

He clarified that determination of electricity tariff and other related issues did not fall within his ambit and hence he is unable to comment on it. He said that the Prime Minister has announced reduction in electricity tariff for industrialists and relief under this directive would be passed on to them as soon as notification was issued.

He said that the industrial sector has used 380 million less units which have complicated the issues relating to capacity payment.

He said that unplanned solarization has further aggravated this situation. He said that unbridled solarization has also damaged our transformers as they could intake only 30% of solar energy. About quarterly adjustments and fuel cost adjustment, he said its related issues would be automatically resolved with the base rate was corrected.

Earlier President FCCI Dr Khurram Tariq welcomed the CEO and said that the immediate and most ticklish problem confronted by every individual today is the costly electricity.

He said that when Wapda was unbundled, it was divided into generation, Wapda, National Transmission and Dispatch Company and Discos. “The role of discos is to distribute electricity and recover its billing only,” he said and added that people are switching over to solar energy to minimize their dependence on costly electricity.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024