Gujranwala Electric Power Company (Gepco) has started taking measures to reduce power distribution losses in its region (both aggregate technical and commercial) which are perpetual drain on the power sector finances and perennial cause of increased circular debt. GEPCO spokesman told Business Recorder on Thursday that Gepco Chief Executive Mohammad Zahid Saleem held separate meetings with superintending engineers, executive engineers and sub-divisional engineers of Gujranawala Circle, Cantt Circle, Sialkot Circle, Narowal Circle, Gurat Circle and other senior offices and reviewed their performance. Chief Engineers, Junaid Akhtar and Muhammad Riaz were also present in these meetings.
Engineer Saleem instructed to take measures and drastically cut the line losses as their progress would be monitored in monthly review meetings. He said all the senior officers must go in the field, keep an eye on suspicious consumers and keep a record of their utilized units. He said there should be no leniency towards toward the electricity thieves and defaulters of due payments. The spokesman further said that Gepco inspection staff had caught 53 electricity thieves during its drive in the region and recovered Rs 1.6 million as fine of illegally utilised 100,000 electricity units.
It may be added that the government directed all ten DISCOs to take corrective measures in the wake of loss of considerable amount of energy beyond the permissible limit during the last five months at 11 KV feeders of all 10 power distribution companies. Some 50 percent and above losses on 745 feeders were recorded during the month of November 2017 which resulted in loss of 250.71 million KWH (units). Whereas the losses at same percentage were recorded during July to November 2017 on 1,241 feeders of DISCOs (except IESCO) incurred the loss of 2233.67 million units of electricity. The progress report revealed that among the worst performing DISCOs, Pesco lost 141.85 million units in KP, Lesco lost 16.64 million units in Punjab, Sepco lost 20.01 million units in Sindh and 37.37 units were lost by Qesco in Balochistan in the month of November 2017, only.