Director General (Energy Management and Conservation) of Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) Ejaz Rafique Qureshi stated this while talking to APP on Sunday.

Qureshi said that 794,099 electricity metres had been replaced during fiscal year 2009-10, and 661,764 metres during the current financial year.

To a question, he said that during last fiscal year, all the distribution companies operating under the Pepco, had detected a total of 1.4708 million cases of power theft and recovered Rs 8.907 billion from them.

Similarly, he said, a total of 1.5738 million such cases were detected during the ongoing fiscal year with the recovery of Rs 8.959 billion.

Enumerating the National Transmission and Dispatch Company's initiatives, the DG said the company had installed 11 new grid stations of 500KV each and 26 grids of 225KV capacity of each till 2009, while a 500KV grid station at Gujranwala and four grid stations of 225KV each had been commissioned last year.

Qureshi said the NTDC also added 35 kilometres in the 5,077KM main transmission line of 500KV and 220KM in the 7,366KM long main line of 225KV.

The Pepco DG (EM&C) said that such initiatives taken by all the power sector components including Pepco, Wapda, GenCos, DISCOs and the NTDC would help ensure smooth electricity supply to the consumers.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2011