ISLAMABAD: With a continuously shrinking demand-supply gap,
the government launched on Tuesday a mobile phone application to let
consumers know real-time electricity billing and supply situation of any
public-sector distribution company (Disco).
Speaking at
the launch of Roshan Pakistan, an Android-based mobile app, Minister for
Power Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari said the government focused on building
generation capacity during its first four years and would now move
towards consumer-oriented services and transparency.
He
said it was for the first time in the last 20 years that 5,297 feeders
out of a total of 8,600 had been declared loadshedding-free. The
government was now giving the public access to information on live power
situation that was previously available only to the minister and the
secretary.
He said about 4,000 megawatts of generation
capacity was now surplus in the system these days. Even in coming
summers, power generation will be higher than peak demand, he added.
Power
Secretary Yousaf Naseem Khokhar, who accompanied the minister, said the
total capacity addition during the tenure of the current government
would touch 11,000MW in June 2018 after the completion of 969MW Neelum
Jhelum and 1,410MW Tarbela-IV.
Mr Leghari said the
introduction of the app will ensure transparency in the power system and
empower the general public to have real-time access to the energy
sector’s information, like consumption, supply, billing and even the
ability to calculate possible electricity bills online.
He
said there would be no human interference in the Roshan Pakistan
application. It will put pressure on government representatives,
including the minister and the secretary, to work harder for the
betterment and efficiency in the system. About 25 million meter owners
will be able to see it at any point in time.
He said the
application would retrieve 100pc correct information of the offices and
computers of 10 Discos.
“We are now picking data and information from the dashboards of the
prime minister and the minister of power and taking them to the common
people through this public service,” he said.
“Making
this information public is for making ourselves accountable to the
public. From now on, each power feeder of Discos will be on the radar of
the public,” he said, adding that the system will enable consumers to
get the status of their relevant feeder with regard to off hours, theft
and billing. “We have brought these details to the palm of a consumer.”
An
official of the Power Information Technology Company (PITC)
demonstrated various features of the application. It has four key
features, including the loadshedding schedule, billing information, net
metering and bill calculator.
Through this app, one can
calculate the amount of bill in advance. It will provide information
about the past 24 hours and next 24 hours. It will also present billing
information of the past 12 months and the facility to get a duplicate
bill.
He said the application would also provide
information about net metering capacity on a specific feeder and how
much of power they could add to the feeder. Net metering is a billing
mechanism that credits solar, wind and other energy system owners for
the electricity they add to the grid.
Responding to a
question about overbilling, the minister conceded it was a serious
issue. He said the government has been convincing all political parties
for three months to amend the Regulation of Generation, Transmission and
Distribution of Electric Power. He said the National Assembly had
passed the bill that envisaged greater powers to the regulator,
including the imposition of three-year imprisonment to officials of
Discos responsible for sending wrong bills to clients. Its clearance
from the Senate was still awaited.
He claimed a huge
positive change had been brought with regard to overbilling in the last
one year. As a result, there were many consumers across the country who
received nil bills because they had been overbilled in previous months.
