CESI’s Metering Project in Pakistan

The Government of Pakistan (GoP)  decided to rely on CESI’s expertise and independency to implement a major-scale program aimed to introduce the use of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) in Pakistani DISCOs. The project is funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB). Under CESI’s supervision, the investment program will be implemented in different stages, with the goal of achieving significant AMI coverage across Pakistan’s major cities and hubs of industrial activity. The first stage of the project aims to cover 1.8 Million consumers and implement new modern billing system for the entire Islamabad Electricity Supply Company (IESCO). The investment program includes enough financial resources to cover the costs of electricity metering infrastructure, as well as the necessary communication and Customer Information System (CIS) and billing system. The locations of the services are Rawalpindi City (twin city of Islamabad the Capital) and Taxila Division (adjacent to Rawalpindi City).

In Pakistan, today the current split in the energy mix consists of 60% fossil fuels, 30% hydel, 6% nuclear and 4% renewables while 70.79% of the Pakistani population has access to electricity, according to a recent report by The World Bank. On one hand, Pakistan wants to use more indigenous resources and hike the renewables portion of the mix to 20% by 2025, and to 30% by 2030. On the other, amongst the reforms launched by The Government of Pakistan (GoP), one important area of intervention is the need to increase the financial viability and reliability of the power distribution system. Such initiatives would lead to cost savings for distribution companies (DISCOs) and power consumers, as well as to an improvement both quality of service for consumers and the overall economic activity.

CESI has more than twenty years of experience in such projects , developed throughout the deep involvement of the company as technical consultant in the major smart metering initiatives worldwide. The role of CESI’s expertise for this assignment, which will take place over 44 months, extends over three phases of the project:

• Procurement Process and Preparatory Activities;

• Supervision of Supply and Installation;

• Post-Installation Operations – Meter data management system/billing/database system