Transformer-level loadshedding: LESCO to pilot APMS in Lahore and Kasur

LESCO will pilot a transformer-monitoring system in Lahore and Kasur that is meant to stop whole neighbourhoods losing power because of theft by a few, Energy Minister Awais Leghari said at a ceremony in Dera Ghazi Khan on Monday, Dawn reported. The system, called the Asset Performance Management System (APMS), is to be rolled out across the country in phases after the pilot.

It is the first concrete step towards the transformer-level loadshedding Leghari promised in September (our earlier story). "LESCO load shedding schedule" alone is searched about 1,600 times a month in Pakistan, according to Semrush.

How APMS works

• A unit in an iron box is fitted to each pole-mounted transformer.
• It logs how many units the transformer receives from the grid and how many its customers' meters record.
• The gap is treated as theft or line loss and reported automatically to officials.
• Old meters are to be replaced with AMI smart meters, which talk to APMS in real time, report tampering and can be disconnected remotely.

Leghari's example: a transformer serving 200 consumers receives 100,000 units; if the meters on it record less, the difference is presumed stolen.

Why it matters for loadshedding

Today, distribution companies cut power feeder by feeder. A feeder typically serves 2,000 to 3,000 or more customers, so one theft-hit area can black out thousands of people who pay. A transformer covers 150 to 200 consumers, so APMS narrows the search more than tenfold and lets the company disconnect only the high-theft transformers.

The present policy stays in place meanwhile. 11kV feeders with losses of 30% or more are graded into five categories and get 2, 4, 6, 8 or 10 hours of loadshedding a day, from category 1 to 5.

When

No start date has been given. A LESCO official told Dawn the pilot is "all set to be launched in Lahore and Kasur soon" and that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is expected to inaugurate it. The Power Planning and Monitoring Company, the Power Division's technical arm, is designing and overseeing the rollout. In September Leghari put the cost of upgrading feeders at about Rs 200 billion, to be recovered from consumers over 25 years.

What you can do now

If your feeder is on a high-loss schedule, your LESCO customer service centre can tell you its category. Keep your own bill in order and check it with our electricity bill calculator; a backup plan for outages is in our battery backup calculator.