LAHORE Funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank (WB), the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) is spending a sum of Rs 57,041 million on 30 projects of up-gradation and construction of grid stations and transmission lines to revamp the electricity supply system and stop power wastage occurring due to the old transmission system. The Pepco conceived the projects with foreign funding after it noticed that the old grid stations and transmission lines being unable to bear increasing electricity load after rise in consumption were getting burnt all over the country, Pepco officials revealed. One of the subsidiaries of the Pepco namely National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) is working on 30 grid extension projects out of which eight will be completed in 2010 while others will be operational in 2011 and by the end of 2012. The upgraded grids and transmission lines will save over 30 per cent electricity that is wasted during its transmission process starting from power generation plants to grid stations and onwards during the supply to Pepcos eight electricity supply companies including the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco), The Nation was told by a Pepco official. The official sources said that the new grid stations would ensure uninterrupted electricity supply to current 1,91,26,004 consumers all over the country. The projects completed in 2009-10 with funding of the ADB include extension at 500KV Gatti grid station at a cost of Rs 1,037 million, extension at 500KV Lahore grid with Rs 917 million, 220KV NKLP Lahore with Rs 676 million, extension at 220KV Ludewala grid with Rs 404 million, extension at 220KV Bahawalpur grid with Rs 404 million, extension at 220KV Hala Road grid station, and 220KV GIS Islamabad University with Rs 610. The projects to be completed in 2010 include extension of 220KV Mangla with Rs 266 million, extension of 500KV Multan for installation of 220/132 KV transformers with Rs 1,012 million, interconnection of Karkey power plant at KTPS Karachi with Pepco funding of Rs 906 million, up-gradation of existing 132KV to New 220KV GIS at Wapda Town Lahore along with associated transmission line, extension at 500KV Tarbela with Rs 846 million, and extension at 220KV Bannu with Rs 309 million. The projects to be completed till the end of 2011 include construction of New 220KV grid station at Bandala, Faisalabad with transmission line with Rs 1,950 million, and construction of a new 220KV Kuzdar grid station with transmission line with Rs 8,338 million. Other 11 projects of similar nature with cost of Rs 32,121 million will be completed by the end of 2012 at Okara, Rohri, Gijra, TT Singh, Loralai, DG Khan, Chishtian, Gujrat, Kassowal, Gawadar and Lahore.