Calling into question: Ministry of Water and Power questions Nepra report credibility

Report highlighted the poor performance of discos during PML-N tenure

ISLAMABAD: Ministry of Water and Power and National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) have entered into a row over a report that has portrayed poor performance of power distribution companies (Discos) during the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) government.

Ministry of Water and Power has cast doubt over the ‘Nepra Annual Report 2014-15’ on power sector and sought a reply regarding evidences which were used in compiling the report.

Officials familiar with the development said that Nepra held a meeting to review the letter received by the Ministry of Power regarding power sector performance revealed in Nepra annual report.

During the meeting, the regulator refused to review the report as demanded by the power ministry saying it had been compiled on the basis on facts.

The regulator also decided to respond to power ministry. Chairman Nepra expressed serious concerns over a campaign against the regulator and said the matter should be taken up in Council of Common Interests (CCI).



It was discussed in the meeting that the report was released after compiling facts and getting approval from authority which also included Member Nepra from Punjab Khwaja Naeem.

Nepra spokesperson, however, said that the power ministry had sought details and some clarifications from Nepra, and a reply was being prepared in response to the ministry’s queries. She also ruled out that the power ministry had demanded reviewing the report.

According to a letter written to Nepra, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, the power ministry said Nepra annual report for the year 2014-15 had claimed that 70% of ToU meters in seven distribution companies were either out-dated or being used out of time. This resulted in sending of either peak or off peak billing wrongly.

Power ministry had asked the regulator to share the data framing basis for this conclusion drawn by the Nepra team including the team members, their expertise, number of areas visited, number of meters checked, size of sample selected for analysis and  details of concerned discos staff co-opted.

A senior government official said that five state run power plants were shut down due to generating expensive electricity. Power ministry had also expressed concerns over rating K-Electric at second number for its performance among eleven state run power distribution companies.

According to official, performance of K Electric was poor in Ramadan. The company was suffering from over 23% losses whereas losses in Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (Fesco) and Gujranwala Electric Supply Company (Gepco) were below 12%.

Earlier, Ministry of Power spokesman said that only in case of sufficient generation available to meet the demand within the scheduled load shedding, most expensive plants were kept on a standby mode. This way the customers are provided relief in terms of the cost of generation, which is reflected in the monthly electricity bills of non-subsidised consumers.

He said due to this merit order generation since last November 2014, the per unit price of electricity had shown regular decrease for which the ministry advised Nepra to reduce tariff every month.

This, he said, has been passed on to the consumers in the shape of monthly fuel price adjustment to the tune ranging from Rs2 to Rs4 per unit in their monthly bills.

Had the expensive plants been used mindlessly, these savings passed on to the consumers would have been wiped out. “Better utilisation of all power plants resulted in achieving the historic average of 16500MW for the month of July which went as high as 16890MW; higher than 15670 of the previous year’s record generation.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2015.

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