The government and Power division has shown willingness to implement Advance Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system worth over Rs17 billion as a pilot project in Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO).
The projects had been approved for IESCO and LESCO in 2016 by the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (ECNEC), but have still not been implemented after a lapse of four years.
The AMI project is included in the list of problematic foreign-funded projects and has been discussed in the National Coordination Committee on Foreign Funded Projects (NCC-FFP). The ADB, which was ready to give $456 million for the AMI project in IESCO and LESCO, filed a special loan Review Mission on this project to review the reasons for the delay in the implementation of the project.
The government is continuously paying commitment charges which have amounted to $2.2 million for not using the loan from ADB. Implementation of the pilot even in one circle of IESCO will enable Power Division to evaluate the pros and cons of different design and rollout strategies for AMI.
