The number of power consumers on Wapda system is expected to touch the figure of 16.8 million by the end of June this year, while demand for electricity during the year is likely to increase by eight percent.
Wapda Chairman Tariq Hamid stated this while briefing a delegation of 36th PN Staff Course of Pakistan Navy War College, Lahore, during their visit to Wapda House here on Saturday. He said that keeping in view the rapid surge in power consumption, an amount of Rs 21 billion has been spent during the last three years to strengthen power transmission system.
This has enabled Wapda to transmit electricity from generating points to the load centers efficiently. This augmentation has also helped Wapda in decreasing its system losses by three percent in last four years. The National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) of Wapda is spending an amount of Rs 17.7 billion for the ongoing projects in this regard, the Wapda chief added.
Referring to village electrification, Tariq Hamid said that Wapda is proud that an unprecedented number of 12,800 villages were provided electricity during the last fiscal year and it has planned to electrify another 15,000 villages by June 2007.
He apprised the delegation that all the villages comprising at least 10 houses in the country except Balochistan would be provided electricity by the end of December 2007 as per commitment of the President and the Prime Minister to the nation. The Alternate Energy Development Board (AEDB) has been assigned the duty by the government to electrify the villages in the far-flung areas of Balochistan through wind and solar energy.
Tariq Hamid also said that Wapda provided more than 19,000 agriculture tube-well connections throughout the country as against a target of 15,000 such connections during the last fiscal year. Briefing about the present electric power scenario in Pakistan, the Wapda chief said that an ambitious energy conservation plan had been chalked out to minimise the load on the system during the peak consumption hours.
This plan, focusing at domestic, commercial and industrial consumers, will facilitate them to take suggested measures for not only saving electricity and reducing their bill.
Speaking about the unbundling of power utility, Tariq Hamid said the Islamabad Electric Supply Company has been given financial autonomy from April 1, while rest of the power distribution companies are expected to be made financially autonomous from July 1 this year.
Comments
Comments are closed.