LESCO to revamp transmission system

Staff Report

LAHORE: The Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) has planned to revamp its transmission system in the city, sources told Daily Times on Wednesday.

Sources said that at present, the city’s transmission system was not overburdened but it would be difficult for LESCO to meet the increasing demand of domestic, commercial and industrial connections in 2005.

According to a report made in June 2004, the number of LESCO connections was 2,071,376 including 1,711,728 domestic, 300,792 commercial, 36,084 industrial, 21,277 tube wells and 1,495 others.

However, from July 2003 to March 2004, LESCO only provided 91,784 connections including 79,544 domestic, 10,662 commercial, 919 industrial, 650 tube wells and nine others.

The report also compared the billing amounts and collections made from July 2002 to June 2003 and from July 2003 to March 2004.

It said that LESCO faced a 14.7 percent loss between July 2002 and January 2003 and the total billing for the period was Rs 47,587 million while only Rs 46,470 million was collected.

The report said that the company’s average capacity to run the system was around 1,400 megawatts (MW) by the end of June 2003 but it was bearing a load of 2,025 MW.

Sources said that given the current increase in demand for new connections, it could be assumed that by July 2005 there would a load of 2,270 MW on the system.

Sources said that at present, the company was catering for 2.29 million consumers and its budget for 2003-04 was Rs 211 millions. They said that though LESCO added 1,696 new transformers to strengthen the system, it would have to set up more grid stations.

According to the schemes initiated by LESCO, there were 188 village electrification schemes, 22 high-tension (HT) proposals and 278 low-tension (LT) proposals from July 2003 to March 2004. About Rs 73.464 million was spent on 188 schemes, Rs 69 million for the 22 HT proposals and Rs 70 million was allocated for 278 LT proposals.

Sources said that although the company was able to increase its receivables by Rs 613 million by the end of March 2004, it only improved its line losses by 0.7 percent.

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