The government is said to be considering putting those involved in electricity theft behind bars for an indefinite period, well-informed sources in the Planning Commission told Business Recorder. This proposal was discussed at a recent meeting on preparation of Tenth Five-Year Plan 2010-15, held under the chairmanship of Ashfaq Mahmood.
The participants representing ministries, Pepco, NTDC and KESC gave different proposals to enhance power generation and improve distribution and reduce unprecedented line losses. The meeting observed that line losses are very high in some Discos, particularly Pesco and Hesco, followed by Lesco and Mepco. Other Discos are doing relatively better.
The representative of Pepco stated that the entity has installed secure metering at 132 kV and now energy input and output are being accurately measured. However, the Planning Commission was of the view that discos need to incorporate new technologies such as prepaid meters, SCADA, Time of the Day (ToD) meters and ripple control centre to monitor online flows.
The sources said both KESC and Pepco were asked to implement the concept of smart grids with smart meters, as it is the current trend in the developed world. The representative of KESC apprised the meeting that there are 69 kunda areas in Karachi but efforts are being made to eradicate power theft.
According to the representative, losses have been systematically brought down from 41 to 34 percent. Transmission and distribution losses in Pepco system are 21 percent including 3.5 percent for transmission. The meeting also observed that cost of service is high as compared to revenue (Rs 8.21 per unit versus Rs 5.22 per unit).
"Pepco and KESC should bring out what they can do to reduce the gap at their end, besides the programme of reduction of losses they should deal with possibility of reducing cost of service, bill collection, transformer burn outs, etc," sources quoted the chairman of the working group as saying.
Sources said both the power utilities have complained that neither the amount of subsidy is adequate nor its disbursement is timely. The meeting noted that in some cases Ulema and religious scholars have begun giving sermons against electricity thieves and non-payment of bills, which proved effective. However, in some cases the inverse was true.
The meeting also discussed different techniques to save electricity. Pepco revealed that it has launched CFL project for conservation of energy in the distribution sector which will save 1130 MW electricity. However, KESC observed that it was not happy with the CFLs with 0.7 PF. It would have preferred better PF say 0.9. Pepco explained that it had evaluated the pros and cons before taking a decision.
At present 48 percent of the total energy consumption is in the domestic sector, 24 percent in industrial sector, 14 percent agriculture sector while the rest of consumption is in commercial sector. Sources said the meeting pointed out several shortcomings in the plans submitted by Pepco and KESC and directed both the organisations to revise their plans. "In the past more importance was given to generation planning and transmission and distribution system had often been getting secondary importance. We need to change this paradigm," the sources quoted Ashfaq as saying.