ISLAMABAD: On the special directives of Federal Minister for Water and Power Syed Naveed Qamar, Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) has decided to exempt Churches from load-shedding on the eve of Christmas on December 24-25.
In this regard IESCO management has also directed to all five circles Manager Operations of Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Attock, Chakwal and Jhelum, said a press release issued here on Thursday.
Moreover the feeders which feed electricity to the Churches are exempted from the load-shedding on December 24-25, while the load-shedding on other feeders will remain as per schedule.
Earlier speaking at the conference, Syed Naveed Qamar said that there was a dire need to bring about change in the overall system. "We cannot afford to maintain status quo."
He said that about Rs 1 trillion had been spent on the power sector but "we are still moving with small pace to reform it".
"We need to change the status quo otherwise the situation may be out of control tomorrow," the federal minister remarked adding that tough decisions needed to be taken to resolve the issues.
Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Dr Nadeem-ul-Haq highlighted the importance of understanding the issues of power sector to develop a comprehensive plan.
He said that there was a deep commitment at the government level to bring about reforms and expressed the hope that concrete results would be coming out of his conference.
On the occasion, representatives of power distribution companies presented their business plan before the participants and pointed out the difficulties they were facing.
The representative of PESCO, in his detailed briefing said, the company was facing about 37 percent line losses and its financial losses had reached Rs.16 billion during the fiscal year 2010-11.
He said that the company had set the target to reduce the line losses to 32.8 percent in 2011-12.
The IESCO representative said that line losses of the company were as low as 7.8 percent during November 2011 which was in accordance with the internationally set standard.
He said that the overall line losses during the current fiscal year were targeted at 9.6 percent as compared to the losses of 9.7 percent in 2010-11. He said that the company had also identified 15 sub-divisions with high losses.
He said that IESCO had undertaken a five-year strategic plan that envisaged improving services and reliability, reduce tariff, increase efficiency and control expenses. It also envisages financial sustainability and listing of the company.
He said that 96 percent billing recovery was made in November 2011 as compared to 90 percent during the same month of last year.
The GEPCO representative in his presentation said that line losses in 2010-11 were at 11.97 percent which were reduced to 11.19 during July-November (2011-12) and projected that total line losses during the current fiscal year would be 11.80 percent.
Representatives of LESCO, FESCO, MEPCO and other distribution companies also gave detailed presentations on the issues their companies were facing and proposed measures to improve the situation of power sector.
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