LAHORE: The Punjab Energy Department has miserably failed to address the billing disputes of the government departments and the allied agencies across the province despite spending Rs290 million, Pakistan Today learnt on Monday.
According to documents, the department had started a project titled ‘Reconciliation of Government Electricity Billing by Installing Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) Meters (2nd Phase)’ with an aim to procure, supply and install a total of 3,243 and AMI meters at Punjab government departments and its allied agencies connections.
However, the project was approved with a cost of Rs290 million with a planned completion date of December 31, 2019, which was later extended to June 30, 2020.
The main theme of the project was the resolution of electricity billing disputes of Punjab government departments and its associated agencies electricity connections where the defective meters were not replaced by Distribution Companies (DISCOs) in time and to monitor the consumption pattern of every public connection and conservation of energy at each selected location.
Similarly, it was also aimed to monitor the electricity billing of public connections through advance reading against correct meters, excessive or average billing against defective meters etc and timely preparation of excessive billing or over readings etc. claims for reconciliation with DISCOs.
Moreover, under the project 3193 AMI/AMR meters were installed at selected locations across Punjab whereas 10 additional AMI/AMR meters were provided to each electric inspector.
The GSM based AMI/AMR check meters were installed in series with DISCO meters, whose reading was reflected on the Reconciliation Cell’s server in real-time.
The Directorate General Monitoring and Evaluation (DGME), in a report about the project, stated that the main objective of the project which was the resolution of electricity billing disputes was partially achieved as the reconciliation cell of energy department wrote letters on monthly basis to all DISCOs whereas the cell lacks the authority to enforce its decision.
Similarly, the other main goal of the project to the conservation of energy at each selected location was also no achieved as no significant advances have been made to facilitate the conservation of energy.
While giving in its observations the DGME report states, “The beneficiaries of the AMI meters were largely unaware of the working of AMI meters. The manual identification of mute meters from the list of 3,195 installed meters defeats the purpose of having software in place”.
“Similarly, the Metering & Testing team of reconciliation cell, which is responsible for operations and maintenance lacks the resources to cater to the entire province. The Reconciliation Cell’s authority is only limited to the identification of excess units charged. Although letters are written, the cell does not possess the resources or legal authority to actually force the DISCOs to return the excess amount,” the report adds.
“There is a communication gap between the beneficiaries of AMI meters and Reconciliation Cell. No mechanism has been devised for periodic physical inspection of meters. If an AMI meter goes becomes dysfunctional, the procedure for replacement is very complex,” report states.
