Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) is implementing a comprehensive plan to reduce its system losses and to provide stable power supply to the customers. Rupees 19.2 billion has already been spent and another Rs 33 billion will be spent by 2008.
This was stated by Wapda Chairman, Tariq Hamid briefing a delegation of National Defence College (NDC) Islamabad, which visited Wapda House on Wednesday. The delegation included senior civil and military officers from home and abroad attending the course at NDC.
Member (Finance) Imtiaz Anjum, Member (Water) Mohammad Mushtaq Chaudhry, Secretary Wapda Khawaja Shaukat Ali and other senior officers were also present during the briefing.
Addressing the delegates, Tariq said that at present there are about 690 grid stations operative under Wapda system, however, the load is not evenly distributed amongst them. Improving the transmission system will not only resolve the problem of load management but also help smooth power supply to the consumers.
He said that the change of transformers is also another important step through which the existing transformers will be changed with those of double capacity.
He also appraised the delegation that the power system losses have reduced to 21.1 percent during the first four months of the current fiscal year These losses were recorded at 22 percent during the corresponding period last year.
He said that 15,000 villages will be electrified during the current fiscal year while all villages comprising 10 and more houses will be provided electricity by December 2007.
In Balochistan, the villages will also be electrified through alternative sources like wind and solar energy, he added. Pakistan has the potential to generate about 50,000 MW of hydel power but only 6,463 MW of electricity is being produced now.