Water and Power Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf on Saturday convened a special meeting to review the energy situation in the country and examined measures being undertaken to implement Prime Minister''s Energy Conservation Strategy by Pepco.
He advised Pepco to mobilise all segments of the society to pursue the conservation strategy to ease prevailing energy crises. Raja Ashraf was informed that Pepco has taken various initiatives to minimise the 3500MW-4000MW gap between demand and supply of electricity in the country.
The government is trying to make the power sector customer-friendly, efficient, and meet the objective of ''Power for All''. Provision of electricity to people at cheaper rates and unhindered is the prime objective of new government. Its different organs are functioning to achieve this excellence in league with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani''s vision to take along Pakistan to face new challenges, emerging in the new socio-economic era.
Ashraf not only stressed on the acceleration of new generation but also the importance of energy conservation campaign. He appealed to the people to join the conservation campaign because it is the only solution to minimise power cuts.
In addition, basic infrastructure such as food, power, transport and communications will be provided throughout Pakistan without any disparity, the minister added. To achieve the goals assigned by Gilani, Pepco is pursuing a two-dimensional plan to make Pakistan an energy sufficient country by enhancing generation capacity and rehabilitating the existing plants, said Pepco Managing Director Munawar Baseer Ahmad.
He stressed on fast track rental generation and accelerating IPP generation. "On a parallel track, Pepco has targeted 1850MW in 2008 through energy conservation initiatives, loss reduction, theft control and load management."
Pursuing the direction of the Prime Minister, a comprehensive energy conservation campaign has already been embarked on to save 1000MW, Baseer said, adding 500MW has been saved through energy conservation awareness campaign.
Pepco MD said that state-of-the-art call centers are being set up with the assistance of SSGC. All CEs have been given target to develop their business plans. To remove the communication gap with media, public and other stakeholders of power sector, a Corporate Communication Department has been set up in Pepco.