The Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) is preparing to install 65,000 Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) meters across its Peshawar and Khyber circles, as part of a broader effort to modernize the utility’s ageing distribution network.
The rollout falls under PESCO’s Electricity Distribution Efficiency Improvement Project (EDEIP), a foreign-funded initiative aimed at reducing losses and improving service reliability in one of Pakistan’s more challenging distribution territories.
What the Project Includes
According to project documents reviewed for this report, the AMI meter component alone — covering 5-20kW smart meters — has been allocated Rs. 1.82 billion, including a foreign-funded portion of $6.5 million. Smart meters of this kind allow utilities to monitor electricity usage remotely and in near real-time, which typically helps reduce billing disputes, detect theft and identify faults faster than traditional analog meters.
Beyond the metering component, EDEIP also covers the installation of aerial bundled cable (ABC) across 60 feeders, spanning approximately 1,298 kilometers in the two circles. This part of the project carries a revised cost of Rs. 3.415 billion, split between Rs. 683.043 million in local costs and Rs. 2.732 billion in foreign financing. Aerial bundled cable is generally used to reduce power theft and improve safety compared to older bare-wire distribution lines.
Technical Assistance and Training Components
The project also sets aside significant funding for supporting infrastructure. Around Rs. 2.67 billion has been allocated for technical assistance, which includes metering and testing equipment, transformer workshops, protection and testing facilities, personal protective equipment, IT systems and vehicles for field operations.
An additional Rs. 126 million is earmarked for training and capacity building, while Rs. 560 million has been set aside for implementation support to ensure the project is executed on schedule.
Overall Project Cost
Taken as a whole, EDEIP carries a revised total cost of Rs. 30.256 billion, equivalent to roughly $108.056 million. Of this, Rs. 8.988 billion comes from local funding sources, while the remaining Rs. 21.268 billion is financed through foreign sources.
Why This Matters for Consumers
For residents of Peshawar and the Khyber circle, the shift to smart metering could bring several practical benefits. Billing based on actual real-time consumption rather than estimated readings should reduce the kind of billing disputes that have long frustrated PESCO’s customer base. Faster fault detection also means outages can potentially be identified and addressed more quickly, since AMI systems can flag problems on the network without requiring a technician to physically inspect every connection.
The parallel investment in aerial bundled cable is also significant from a safety and theft-reduction standpoint, since bare overhead wires are more vulnerable to illegal hooking and pose greater electrocution risks, particularly during Pakistan’s monsoon season.
Broader Context
PESCO has historically struggled with high transmission and distribution losses compared to some other utilities in Pakistan’s power distribution network, a problem that has contributed to circular debt in the broader energy sector. Projects like EDEIP are part of a wider push by the government and its development partners to modernize distribution infrastructure across multiple DISCOs (distribution companies), with the goal of reducing technical and non-technical losses that ultimately get passed on to paying consumers through higher tariffs.
Conclusion
The 65,000-meter AMI rollout is one component of a larger Rs. 30 billion investment aimed at bringing PESCO’s distribution network up to modern standards. While the full benefits will depend on how efficiently the project is implemented, the combination of smart metering and upgraded cabling infrastructure represents a meaningful step toward reducing losses and improving service reliability for electricity consumers in Peshawar and the Khyber circle. The rollout comes as consumers also grapple with the recent electricity price hike and as NADRA takes over pensioner biometric verification from banks, part of a broader digitization push across Pakistan’s utility and government services.