To curb power theft and address billing issues, Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO), in cooperation with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), has decided to install 1.7 million modern meters based on advanced metering infrastructure (AMI).
The total cost of the initiative will be around $300 million. Not only will the move help in saving traditional meter reading expenses, but it will also eliminate line losses.
Since, AMI based meters continuously transmit information to a central control room, incidents of transformers and meters catching fire will also decline significantly across the provincial capital.
Moreover, LESCO consumers will be able to check their electric load, voltage, and bill at any time.
Project Details
Of the total project cost, ADB will pay almost 78.5% while LESCO will fund the remaining expenses.
Under the project, 1,474,532 single-phase and 213,120 three-phase AMI based meters will be installed in LESCO’s south and central circles.
28,753 old industrial and commercial meters will be replaced with the modern meters as well.
Once AMI meters are installed in the south and central circles, the scope of the project will be expanded to all remaining circles of LESCO.
LESCO has granted the contract to conduct the technical evaluation of the project to a foreign consultancy firm.
The evaluation will take around 3 months to complete. The work on the project will begin once the evaluation concludes. The project is expected to take 4 years to complete.
LESCO’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mujahid Pervaiz Chattha, said that facilitating the consumers is the primary aim of LESCO.
We continue to plan according to future needs while dealing in a timely manner with customer complaints. This is the first step towards providing better services to consumers through the use of advanced technology.
