Government to audit all Discos to trace power theft, losses

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has decided to conduct a comprehensive technical audit of all former Wapda distribution companies, or Discos, to determine how much electricity is lost through theft and technical and commercial inefficiencies. The Discos were formed after Wapda was unbundled and now supply electricity across the country.

The decision was taken on Wednesday at a meeting of a special committee constituted by the prime minister on inefficiencies and electricity theft in Discos, Dawn reported. The committee reviewed measures to curb electricity theft, reduce distribution losses and improve the performance of the power distribution companies. Minister for Economic Affairs Ahad Cheema was among those at the meeting, according to the newspaper.

The audit is intended to establish the actual scale, causes and geographical concentration of power theft, as well as technical and commercial losses, across all former Wapda Discos, Dawn said. The report did not specify a timeline for the audit or the agency that would carry it out.

Separately, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported that Pakistan has installed more than 2.12 million smart electricity meters across the country as part of efforts to curb electricity theft, improve billing accuracy and strengthen revenue recovery. An official document available with the news agency put the total at 2,125,296 smart meters installed as of August 5.

According to APP, the smart meters are meant to reduce tampering and meter reading errors and to identify areas with high losses. The news agency said the official document did not provide a province-wise breakdown of the installations.

Neither report said how much revenue the smart meter rollout has recovered or how many theft cases have been detected through the new meters. The two initiatives are part of a broader effort to reduce losses in the power distribution network.