Under digitization and up-gradation programme, Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) has planned to replace all existing old meters with state of the art advance metering infrastructure (AMI) meters till 2030 across its all six circles aimed at ensuring accurate meter reading, billing, controlling power theft and reducing load-shedding. Briefing the media persons here Thursday, the IESCO Chief Executive Officer Dr Muhammad Amjad said currently the company has around 3.8 million consumers in six circles incluidng Rawalpindi City, Rawalpindi Cantt, Islamabad, Chakwal, Jhelum and Attock and some areas of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. “All the connections (3.8million) will be replaced with AMI meters by 2030,” he said. However, the IESCO chief said that in first phase around 1.2 million connections in Rawalpindi Cantt Circle, Rawalpindi City Circle and Taxila were being replaced with AMI meters. The company has already installed over 42,,000 meters so far in various areas of Rawalpindi in short spin of time, he added.

He said these meters were installed in areas of Gulzar Quaid, Dr Abdul Qadir Road, Gangal and Khana and Westridge. Currently, AMI meters were being installed in PWD, Korag Town and the installation process of these meters in Media Town and its adjacent areas would also be completed by July and August, he added. Under the plan, in first phase, the company would install around 1.2 million AMI meters, initially in Rawalpindi City Circle, Rawalpindi Cantonment Circle and Taxila (Division), he said. The task would be completed by June 2026 for which initially two contractors have been hired to install around 2000 AMI daily in the said circles, he said. Dr Amjad said the Asian Development Bank has provided $ 109 million financial assistance to complete the project under second power distribution enhancement investment programme.

The contract for the project was signed on September, 3, 2022 while its effectiveness date was January 2023, he added. He said that main data and back data centres which were part of the project had already been set up at the IESCO’s head office and Gujjar Khan respectively. The CEO said AMI system would bring about a permanent elimination of power pilferage with systematic control of transmission through round-the-clock monitoring of the electricity meters. This technology would help reduce power sector losses, enhance the quality of billing and recoveries, control power load-shedding and also address the consumers’ complaints of wrong or over-billing, he said. He said the AMI system would also end human interventions in meter reading, enhance customer support, better measurements, more accurate billing, a degree of control of consumption and help improve IESCO’s ability to reduce non-technical losses.

He said automated 100 per cent accurate and timely meter readings would reduce costs incurred on meters readings significantly. In case of any power theft, tripping, power failure, or defective meters, automated intimation would be received in the data centre with instructions to the concerned SDO for rectification in a short time. The consumers will also be able to control their electricity bills by monitoring their electricity consumption daily through a mobile application, he remarked. To a question, the CEO said that the system has capacity of 5 million connections and currently IESCO has around 3.8 million consumers and we have still 1 million consumer space in the system.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan