Discos, K-Electric contributed losses of Rs123 billion: NEPRA annual report 2018-19

The report outlined 152 fatal accidents occurred due to violation of prescribed safety standards.

ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The power distribution companies (Discos) and the K-Electric collectively contributed losses of around Rs45 billion “due to inefficiency, and transmission and distribution (T&D) losses, and Rs78 billion due to less recovery of bills for the year 2018-19, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has revealed in its annual Performance Evaluation Report.

The report further outlined that 152 fatal accidents had occurred due to violation of prescribed safety standards by the power distribution companies in the same period.

The regulatory body analysed the annual performance reports from all distribution companies and approved a Performance Evaluation Report, and uploaded on the website of NEPRA.

The report observed that a detailed study was also carried out to determine the circumstances and total number of fatal accidents occurring in DISCOs and K-Electric during the last seven years which revealed that 1169 fatal accidents occurred from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2018.

Province-wise power capacity

The report also observed province-wise installed capacity of power generation plants as 16,773.6 MW or 51.53 percent in Punjab, 7,530 MW or 19.44 percent in Sindh, 5,855.4 MW or 14.84 percent in KP, 3,766 MW or 7.52 percent in Balochistan, and 1999 MW or 6.66 percent in AJK.

Complaints

Power sector 1423 related to cases pending before the courts as of June 30, 2019.

It stated, “the complaints received by the Authority mainly relate to excessive and detection billing, delay in provision of connections and in replacement of defective meters, low voltage problem, slow augmentation of transformers, non-receipt of electricity bills, delay in replacement of damaged transformers, and excessive load shedding etc.”

Power Outage Complaint Application

The report mentioned about the Power Outage Complaint Application, and observed that it was under progress to monitor the access of reliable electricity services to the general public, especially in rural areas. “By using this App any citizen can submit a complaint about unscheduled power outage. The complaint will be routed to the concerned Distribution Company with resolution deadline as per NEPRA Performance Standards Rules.”

Online complaints

The report further outlined that the online complaint management system was launched for General Public on 27 September, 2018. “During the financial year 2018-19, 831 complaints are received online and resolved/disposed by the Consumer Affairs Officers at Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta.”

Licenses

Moreover, the NEPRA report pointed out that a total number of 1155 Generation Licenses were issued for Conventional Power Plants, Renewable Energy Projects, Hydropower Projects and Net Metering. “Tariff was determined for successful bidders, through competitive bidding, of two medium sized Hydropower projects to be constructed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Generation Tariff was determined for 300 MW Coal-fired Power Plant at Gwadar.” “The existing mechanism of Fuel Cost Component was modified on account of utilization of RLNG for Northern Power Generation Company Limited and Jamshoro Power Company Limited.”

“Determination was issued regarding review against decision in the matter of Induction of Security Cost for CPEC Projects in the Power Tariff to ensure Security Sustainability. Generation Tariff Determinations were issued to 16 companies based on Wind Power and 02 companies based on Solar Power. Decision was also issued on use of RLNG by K-Electric as alternative fuel,” it observed.

Distributed Generation/Net-Metering Licenses During the period under consideration 1143 distributed generation licenses, with total installed capacity of 19.55 MW, were issued under the net metering regime.

Distribution license for 50 MW was issued to Lasbela Industrial Estate Development Authority. Processing of 11 applications for grant of distribution licenses by different housing societies/colonies/industrial estates etc. could not be finalized due to different reasons such as reluctance of the host DISCOs and being sub-judice in the court of law.

After amendment in the NEPRA Act, the Authority has decided to further process these applications for which the applicants have been directed to apply for the grant of supplier license under the new regime.

Regional offices

The NEPRA has decided to establish five additional offices of NEPRA at Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Multan, Hyderabad and Sukkur, in addition to already established existing offices at Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta. It is expected that the additional offices will be functional with effect from September 1, 2019.

The NEPRA has been established under Section 3 of the Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power Act, 1997 to exclusively regulate the provision of electric power services in Pakistan. The Regulation of Generation, Transmission and Distribution of Electric Power (Amendment) Act, 2018 has overhauled the role and responsibilities of NEPRA.