LESCO New Connection: Load, Documents, Demand Notice and Meter Cost

A new LESCO connection is granted through one national portal — enc.com.pk — and paid for through one document, the Demand Notice. Between those two points sit a site survey, a document check and a wiring inspection. The number that decides almost everything else is your sanctioned load in kilowatts: it sets your security deposit, your tariff category, and the legal deadline LESCO has to connect you.

Most people apply before they have decided that number. That is the mistake worth avoiding.

Decide your load before you open the portal

Sanctioned load is the capacity LESCO approves for your premises, stated in kW. It is not a formality. Four things follow from it:

• Your security deposit. Charged per kW. Ask for 5 kW instead of 3 kW on a domestic urban connection and the deposit rises by roughly Rs 2,440 at current rates.
• Your legal timeframe. Up to 15 kW is one category; above 15 kW moves you into a slower one.
• Your fixed charges once billing starts.
• Whether you get single-phase or three-phase.

There is a rounding rule that catches people. For loads above one kilowatt, a fraction of half a kW or more counts as a full kW; anything under half is ignored. So 4.5 kW is billed as 5 kW for deposit purposes, and 4.4 kW as 4 kW.

Under-declaring to save money on the deposit creates a worse problem later. Run consistently above your sanctioned load and you face a tariff category revision — and a fresh deposit demand for the entire load, not just the increase.

A working method: add the wattage of everything that can run at once — air conditioners, water pump, iron, refrigerator, lighting — divide by 1,000, and add a margin for what you will own in three years. One 1.5-ton AC alone is roughly 1.5–2 kW while the compressor runs.

What LESCO actually asks for

Every document goes up as a scan under 300 KB, in JPG, PNG or PDF. Compress before you start; the upload rejects oversized files without explaining why.

Identity

• Applicant’s CNIC, attested, both sides
• CNIC of one witness — a neighbour or family member

Property One of: Registry, Fard, Bay-nama, or Allotment Letter for a housing colony. This is the document that decides whether you are treated as owner or occupant.

Tenants add a No Objection Certificate from the owner. Without it the application does not proceed, and no amount of follow-up at the sub division office substitutes for it.

Location proof A recent electricity bill from a neighbouring premises. The portal uses that reference number to place your address on the correct feeder and sub division before a surveyor ever visits.

Technical A wiring test report from an electrical contractor on LESCO’s approved list. A report from an unlisted electrician is not accepted, and DISCOs publish their contractor lists — ask your sub division office for the current one rather than trusting whoever wired the house.

Legal An undertaking on stamp paper, attested by an Oath Commissioner, stating that no earlier connection exists at the premises and no dues are outstanding against it.

Attestation can be done by an Oath Commissioner or any government officer of BPS-16 or above. A gazetted officer’s stamp on a photocopy is enough; you do not need a notary for routine domestic applications.

One condition that stops applications cold: outstanding arrears against the premises must be cleared before a new connection is sanctioned. If a previous occupant defaulted and the connection was permanently disconnected, that account settles first. Check before you spend on documents.

Submitting a forged document is not a paperwork error. The application is cancelled and LESCO retains the right to pursue legal action.

Applying on the ENC portal

The Electricity New Connection system is a Power Division platform covering most distribution companies. Its left-hand menu carries eight items: Home, Apply, Change, Track, Print Form, Upload DN, Print DN, Pay DN.

The first screen asks four things:

1. Distribution company — LESCO
2. Sub division — the office that will handle your file
3. Category — Domestic, Commercial, Industrial, Agriculture, Tubewell, Temporary, General Services, Residential Colonies or Street Light
4. Reference number of a neighbouring connection

Then the detailed form: applicant particulars, ownership status, father’s name, CNIC, mobile number, premises address, requested load.

The mobile number matters more than the form suggests. Survey scheduling and Demand Notice readiness are communicated by phone. A number you do not carry is a fortnight lost.

After submission you receive a Tracking ID. Save it before closing the tab.

Print the completed form and take it, with the original documents, to your sub division office. The online submission alone does not move the file. This trips up more applicants than any other step.

Two portal details worth knowing: online Demand Notice payment through Pay DN is currently available for LESCO applicants, and not for every distribution company on the platform. And LESCO applies through enc.com.pk directly — FESCO, IESCO and MEPCO route their applicants elsewhere, so instructions written for those companies will not match what you see.

The site survey

Field staff from your sub division visit to confirm three things: that the address matches your documents, how far the premises sits from the nearest pole or transformer, and whether the local feeder can carry your requested load.

The distance measurement is the one with a price attached. Where an extension of the distribution system is required, the cost of that work enters your estimate.

Where no common distribution system reaches your area, the connection is granted on a cost-deposit basis — you fund the infrastructure. If LESCO later converts that system into a common one, the cost of the transformer and LT line is reimbursable, though the HT line is not.

If your premises sits inside a private housing scheme running its own dedicated distribution system, you need a No Objection Certificate from the owner of that system before LESCO can connect you from it.

The Demand Notice

The Demand Notice is the priced bill for your connection. It is issued after the survey and document check clear, and it itemises the meter, the security deposit and the connection charges.

It can reach you by registered post, by courier, in person against receipt, or as a download from the portal using your Tracking ID through Print DN.

You have thirty days to pay it. That is the standing rule for every category of connection. There is a provision most applicants never learn about: a further grace period of thirty days may be allowed on the applicant’s request. If money is short, ask your sub division office in writing before the first thirty days expire rather than letting the notice lapse and starting again.

Payment goes to the designated bank branch named on the notice, or online through Pay DN. Keep the original bank receipt. Upload it through Upload DN, and hold the paper copy — the sub division office will ask to see it.

Priority for actual connection is determined after the Demand Notice is paid and the wiring test report is submitted. Paying early is what moves you up the queue.

What it costs

Two separate amounts sit on the notice. Only one of them is refundable.

The meter

LESCO notified a revised price for single-phase AMI smart meters on 31 March 2026: Rs 17,700, replacing Rs 11,665 which the Material Management department had set only days earlier. The revision was issued by the Director of Customer Services.

The price includes ten metres of cable. If your meter position sits further than that from the supply point, the extra length is charged separately at rates set by the Regional Store Manager’s office.

Single-phase static meters, previously priced at Rs 4,000, are no longer supplied for new connections. That transition accounts for most of the increase applicants have noticed since 2025.

The security deposit

This is the part almost nobody explains, and it is fully published.

LESCO recovers security deposits at rates NEPRA determined on 4 November 2010, reproduced as Annexure-IV of the Consumer Service Manual. LESCO confirmed these as its current rates in its own petition filed with NEPRA in February 2024.

A 3 kW domestic urban connection therefore carries a security deposit of Rs 3,660. Rural connections are charged at half the urban rate.

These rates have a petition pending against them. LESCO filed with NEPRA in February 2024 seeking a revision to roughly two and a half months’ average billing for most categories, and three months for urban domestic properties up to 10 marlas. The figures sought were Rs 19,272 per kW for urban domestic up to 10 marlas, Rs 8,030 per kW rural, and Rs 25,656 per kW urban commercial. For urban domestic properties above 10 marlas, the proposal replaces a per-kW rate entirely with one percent of the land value at FBR-notified rates.

Seven other distribution companies filed parallel petitions. If determined as sought, the deposit on a 3 kW urban domestic connection moves from Rs 3,660 to roughly Rs 57,800. Anyone planning a large connection, or a connection on a plot above 10 marlas, should treat the current figure as a floor rather than a settled cost.

The number that is actually yours

No published figure tells you your total. Meter cost, security deposit, connection charges and any system extension are combined on your own Demand Notice, and the extension component varies with your distance from the network.

The Demand Notice is the only authoritative statement of what you owe. If a charge is not itemised on it, LESCO has no approved basis to collect it — a distribution company may charge only what NEPRA has approved.

How long LESCO legally has

This is a published performance standard, not an internal target, and it is the single most useful thing to know when an application stalls.

Three qualifications decide whether the clock is actually running:

• The count is in calendar days, from the date your application is registered — not from the survey, not from payment.
• A distribution company must meet these limits for at least 95% of new connections. It is a compliance obligation with a measurable threshold.
• Time consumed by matters beyond the company’s control is excluded. A missing document, an unpaid Demand Notice or a disputed property record pauses the count, which is why complete paperwork is worth more than follow-up visits.

For housing schemes and multi-storey buildings, the time allowed for electrification work doubles — 60, 88, 116 and 212 days for the corresponding categories.

A domestic single-phase connection is almost always Category 1. Thirty days.

Installation, inspection and energisation

Once payment is verified, installation is scheduled. Three things happen before the supply is live.

Inspection. No wiring or apparatus may be connected to the distribution system until LESCO has inspected and approved it. This is where a wiring test report from an unapproved contractor surfaces as a problem.

The supply contract. The Application and Power Supply Contract is executed in triplicate. Keep your copy — it records your sanctioned load and tariff category, which is what you cite if either is later applied incorrectly.

Meter installation and sealing. The meter is fitted, sealed and energised. Photograph the meter and its serial number the day it is installed, with the initial reading visible. That photograph settles any argument about the opening reading on your first bill, and takes ten seconds.

Your first bill, and the number you do not have yet

Here is the gap almost every new consumer falls into.

A billing reference number is generated when your connection is registered in the billing system. Until the first cycle runs, you have a meter, a paid receipt and no reference number — and every method of checking a LESCO bill needs one.

There is also a lag. The meter is read on your sub division’s schedule, not from your installation date, so the first bill can arrive up to a full billing cycle after energisation. Nothing has gone wrong.

When you need the number and have no bill to read it from, it can be recovered against your CNIC through official channels. The routes are set out on our LESCO bill check page, and once you have the number you can open the bill there directly.

Before the first bill lands, you can estimate what it will be from your meter reading using the LESCO bill calculator — worth doing in the first month, when consumption habits are still being set.

Getting your security deposit back

The deposit is yours. It is refundable, and the rules are specific.

On permanent disconnection, you apply for the refund, the load sanctioning officer approves it, and the refund must be processed within thirty days of the request — provided nothing is outstanding against you. If dues remain, the deposit is adjusted against them first.

It can also be adjusted into your final bill if you ask for that instead.

It does not travel with the property. The deposit is non-transferable, with three exceptions: relocation of premises, change of name with the existing consumer’s consent, and succession. If you buy a house, the seller’s deposit does not become yours by default — which is why change of name matters more than people assume.

It gets revised more often than expected. The deposit is recalculated at prevailing rates on change of name, change of tariff category, shifting of the connection, and reconnection after more than 365 days of disconnection. On extension of load, it is recalculated for the entire load, not just the addition — with credit for what you already paid. On reduction of load, the difference is refunded or charged.

Industrial consumers in B-3 and B-4 categories may furnish a bank guarantee instead of a cash deposit, and existing B-3 and B-4 consumers can switch by withdrawing their earlier deposit. That option is not available to domestic or commercial consumers.

Temporary connections

A temporary connection is available for house construction, building and plaza construction, illumination for weddings, festivals, exhibitions and ceremonies, testing of industrial equipment, and other short-term needs.

They bill under separate categories — E-1(i) domestic, E-1(ii) commercial and E-2 industrial — and the company ordinarily requires security equal to the anticipated supply charges for the period before granting one.

Two things to plan around. Temporary tariffs are structurally more expensive than permanent supply for the same use. And a temporary connection has a defined validity with firm disconnection at expiry, so construction schedules should assume the permanent application is running in parallel, not afterwards.

Changing name, load or tariff later

The same portal handles all three through Change, and the sequence mirrors a new application: apply, verification, Demand Notice, payment.

• Change of name is what transfers a connection after a sale, inheritance or handover. The security deposit is updated at prevailing rates with credit for what was paid.
• Extension of load is required before adding significant capacity — a second AC, a workshop machine, a shop expansion.
• Change of tariff applies when the use of the premises changes, most commonly domestic to commercial.

Change applications are tracked the same way, and the Demand Notice is printed the same way.

When the application stops moving

Stalled applications usually stop at a specific desk, and knowing which one shortens the wait.

• Track first. Use your Tracking ID or CNIC at the portal before making any call. The status tells you which stage holds the file.
• Match the officer to the stage. Document verification and survey scheduling sit with your Sub Divisional Officer. Beyond that, the Executive Engineer at divisional level handles what an SDO cannot resolve.
• Quote the standard, not the inconvenience. “My application was registered on the fourteenth, my category carries a thirty-day limit, and I am now on day forty-one” is a different conversation from asking when the meter is coming.
• Check what is actually pending on your side. Time beyond LESCO’s control does not count against the limit. An unpaid Demand Notice or a missing test report means the clock is paused, and no escalation restarts it.
• Deal only through the office. Every legitimate charge appears on the Demand Notice. Payment goes to a bank, against a printed notice, with a receipt. Anyone offering to accelerate a connection for a cash payment outside that document is not operating within a system NEPRA has approved.

If the sub division and division have both been given a fair opportunity and the file has not moved, the escalation path runs to NEPRA and, beyond it, the Electricity Ombudsman at the Wafaqi Mohtasib’s office. Both expect evidence that you went through LESCO first — which is why the Tracking ID matters from day one.

Frequently asked questions

Figures on this page are drawn from NEPRA’s Consumer Service Manual and published determinations, and from LESCO’s notification of 31 March 2026. Security deposit rates are those NEPRA determined on 4 November 2010 and which LESCO confirmed as current in its February 2024 petition. Rates change by notification — the amount on your own Demand Notice is the one that governs.