Recovery campaign: Lesco disconnects power supply to government departments

Chief Executive Officer, Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco), Eng. Saleem Akhtar has said the LESCO has disconnected power supplies to government departments including health, police, education to recover Rs 7 billion. He was speaking at a seminar organised by LESCO on energy efficiency in buildings in connection with the World Environment at a local hotel, here on Saturday.
He said the LESCO has disconnected majority of government departments connections barring a few sensitive departments. However, he did not reveal as how much the LESCO has recovered from the government departments so far. He proposed that Pakistan must look at the option of solar energy to overcome energy shortages. He said that all the educational institutions should be switched over to the solar energy through legislation. He said the Beacon House School has already made arrangements in this regard.
The LESCO chief said the LDA parks and park lights should be switched over to the solar system immediately. Akhtar said that hydel and oil mix solution is not affordable. He said that the Wapda was not allowed to add any new dam during last one decade, he added, no new power generation house was installed during the same period. He appreciated the Chairman Wapda for his working on such these projects.
He said the consumers should look for the answer as how they could save planet from carbon emission. He said the fossil fuel used for energy generation is either gas, oil or other resources, which are depleting with each passing day. "We would have to look at alternate energy besides ensuring energy efficient buildings," he said, adding, "The govt must do legislation and new building code should be introduced for energy efficient buildings."
He said that one megawatt saved is better that one megawatt generated, as the system bears losses right from generation to consumption. He said that 50 percent of the energy is utilised by domestic consumers. The domestic consumption is 81.3 percent, he said adding that inefficient appliances and cheap Chinese equipments are resulting in huge consumption of electricity. He said the dependence on oil previously for power generation was 18 percent against 41 percent as of today. He stressed upon the option of green energy, which means saving of every unit of energy.
Ahmad Rafay Alam, Chairman LESCO Board of Directors, said the LESCO's line losses are less compared with other power distribution companies. He said the Lesco line losses are 14 percent, costing over a billion rupees to LESCO therefore smart energy meters are need of hour. Hamid Zaman, Member LESCO Board, Ibrar Malik, co-ordinator Enercon, Omar Hassan and Mujeeb-ur-Rehman, architects, also spoke on the occasion.