Daily Times

KARACHI: The Power Information Technology Company (PITC), an autonomous body in WAPDA, is looking to change its Load Data Improvement Project (LDIP)’s service provider telecom company due to poor quality of service.

The PITC has invited proposals for support and maintenance of deployed LDIP, a project of monitoring of load shedding schedule across the country. PITC being the part of the system and technology provider for all the Distribution Companies (DISCOs) for multiple information and communication technology (ICT) solutions, installed Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system, comprising manufacturing, supply and installation of more than 11,400 GSM/GPRS enabled HT Type, AMR Energy Meters to mitigate the power crisis in Pakistan.

Special SIM based GSM meters were designed with the help of third part by PITC to monitor the schedule of grid stations and theft/losses of load shedding for the first ever power project for monitoring of load shedding schedule of 9 DISCOs in Pakistan.

All telecom companies participated in the bidding and Ufone won the bid. Thus, Ufone provided the special 10000+ Data SIMS to PITC in more than 50 cities.

Meanwhile, on the expiry of the support and maintenance contract, PITC intends to hire services of new firm for operational support and software maintenance & support for LIDP.

The PITC intends to hire services for installation of new AMR HT Type meters or change/replacement/ shifting of existing AMR HT Type meters in order to add new grid(s), add new incoming power transformers, add new outgoing feeders, shift meters from one incoming power transformer to another incoming power transformer, remove already installed meters, replace old panels and replace burnt / defective meters.

The PITC is also looking to replace the defective SIMs that were installed in smart meters besides seeking replacement of the SIMs with the SIMs of another telecom company due to low or poor signal strength / quality, said the PITC.

USAID funded the project under its Power Distribution Program (PDP) and named it as LDIP. The meters were installed on all 11kV incoming and outgoing feeders of more than 800 Grid Stations all around Pakistan, including Small Power Producers (SPP)/ Captive Power Producers (CPP), Small Hydel Power Stations (SHPS), B-4 & C-3 Consumer Grids.

The meters installed at Incoming side of DISCO grids, SPP, CPP, SHPS, B-4 & C-3 consumer grids communicate load data on near real time basis and the meters installed on outgoing side communicate load data after every 15 minutes interval. Simultaneously, on/ off status of the 11KV feeders with time is also being monitored/ indicated.

Moreover, Meter Data Collection (MDC) software collects the metering data and makes it available to NPCC and different utility (DISCOs) Power Dispatch Centers (PDCs).