The United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) $218 million Power Distribution Program (PDP) is in the doldrums as the contractors are leaving the country without handing over the project to the concerned Power Distribution Companies (Discos), well informed sources told Business Recorder.
USAID has also installed more than 150,000 static meters (ToU) in LESCO, MEPCO and PESCO which have issues of internal clocking; ToU meters are largely malfunctioning which is resulting in incorrect billing to more than 70% consumers.
An official from Mepco revealed that USAID invested over $12 million on static meters/AMR at MEPCO and PESCO and installed 40,000 meters however despite such a huge investment, USAID has still not shifted the billing to the new system despite many requests from MEPCO officials. The reason for not shifting billing from old meters to new Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) meters is malfunctioning and internal clock problems of these meters that have been locally manufactured therefore the heavy investment of $12 million is turning into a waste of resources.
"The main concern for Discos is that the USAID project after getting extension of a month will end by the end of currentmonth, therefore if billing is not shifted to new static meters, which does not seem to be happening, it would mean a waste of U.S. investment of $12 million. The contractor staff involved in metering project is hopeful for another extension till January 2016 after delaying the implementation of meter installation," the Discos sources continued.
Earlier, the Power Distribution Program was extended when NEPRA Chairman, Brig. Tariq Saddozai (retired) showed concerns over project closure without completing meter's installation.
This correspondent sent some questions to the USAID with respect to PDP and received a response after two weeks.
According to the USAID, the ABC cable was tested by an independent Swiss based company -Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) and subsequently underwent full laboratory testing by INTERTEK Plastics Technology Laboratories Inc. USA. However, Business Recorder's sources maintained that these tests may have been conducted by the company as a routine testing for international standards as a general procedure, however no specific factory testing tests were conducted based on local conditions of Peshawar and Multan and neither PESCO nor MEPCO were taken on board regarding specifications of the cable. PESCO management has been unable to demonstrate any reduction in losses despite the fact that USAID claims installation of hundreds of KM ABC cable in Peshawar. For testing purpose no local entity like DISCOs, WAPDA and NTDCL were involved which mainly caused the problem as the cable was not suitable to local conditions.
According to sources, PESCO refused to use rickshaws provided by USAID because PESCO was unable to afford fuel cost of 100 rickshaws and PESCO officers were not comfortable using small rickshaws for replacement of transformers. The project never consulted DISCOs while procuring Rickshaws.
The sources further reveal that USAID is planning to conduct a comprehensive audit of PDP as a standard process.
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