Seventh Quarterly Progress Report: April-June 2012

The program's period of performance is from September 17, 2010 to March 31, 2015. The seventh quarterly progress report covers the period from April 1 to June 30, 2012. During this quarter, PDP provided assistance to USAID in drafting and revising several key documents, including the USAID Policy Matrix, Model and Turnaround DISCO Concepts and Selection Criteria Papers, Short-Term Emergency Response Concepts, and the Circular Debt Report. PDP also worked with the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) to restart collaborative activities and provide training and capacity building for NEPRA personnel. In addition to providing technical assistance, PDP continued to deliver Component 2 activities, which include the installation of consumer meters. PDP engineers completed designs for the installation of 10,000 meters in the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (PESCO) service territory. The PDP Commercial Team worked with PESCO personnel to check almost 7,000 meters in the Sikandarpura subdivision, replacing 1,500 old, damaged, and defective meters and aligning 500 meters. The PDP Finance Team achieved two significant milestones this quarter. The 10-year financial model was handed over to partner DISCOs, which will be used as a tool for developing annual business plans, budgets, and NEPRA tariff petitions. The Multan Electric Power Company (MEPCO) Board of Directors became the first DISCO to adopt the new internal audit manual and approve the use of external auditors in their internal audit department. The PDP Communications Team completed the design and delivery of PESCO's website, which is the third website completed by PDP. The website is dynamic, user-friendly, and allows users to easily print their bills using their reference numbers. A nationwide painting competition for promoting energy conservation was also organized by PDP, with the theme "Save Energy, Save Pakistan."