NEPRA slaps Rs5m fine for failing to prevent breakdown

Holds Genco-III responsible for negligence that led to hours-long blackout

ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has slapped a fine of Rs5 million on state-run Northern Power Generation Company (Genco-III) for failure to activate the protection system that resulted in power breakdown.

According to a statement issued on Thursday, Nepra imposed the penalty on account of negligence in maintenance of a 220-kilovolt switchyard of Thermal Power Station Muzaffargarh and failure to operate the protection system. That resulted in power breakdown on January 15, 2016 in northern network of the country that covered Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.



Nepra recalled that the country endured hours-long electricity shutdown when a major transmission line near Muzaffargarh tripped. It led to the shutdown of Mangla, Tarbela, Ghazi Barotha and other powerhouses and caused blackout in around 60-70% of the country for six to seven hours.

After the incident, the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) divided the transmission system into different zones. South Zone remained unaffected and the power ministry at that time claimed that electricity supply to major cities was restored after two to three hours.

However, the electricity supply remained shut for hours in the northern part of Punjab, including Lahore, and some central and southern cities of the province like Sahiwal, Okara and Kasur. The supply also remained suspended to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan.

The power-sector regulator said it took serious notice of the breakdown and initiated legal proceedings against Genco-III as well as directed NTDC to investigate the matter and submit a report. Subsequently, Nepra, after reviewing inquiry reports of NTDC and the Ministry of Energy, held Genco-III responsible for the power breakdown.

“Non-operation of primary protection at Thermal Power Station Muzaffargarh, managed by Genco-III, caused cascaded tripping of transmission lines and power plants, which eventually resulted in a widespread breakdown, leaving Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in dark,” Nepra said in the statement.

Prior to the breakdown, Nepra said it had taken notice of deficiencies and defects in the switchyard concerned and had directed Genco-III, through a letter, to address the deficiencies and maintain the switchyard.



As the generation company did not comply with the directives, a show-cause notice was issued and an opportunity of hearing was provided to Genco-III on January 24, 2018.

During the hearing, representatives of Genco-III were unable to provide any plausible reason to defend the company against the charges. It was established that Nepra’s directives and provisions of the Generation Licence, National Electric Power Regulatory Authority Licensing (Generation) Rules 2000 and Grid Code 2005 were violated by Genco-III.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 22^nd, 2018.

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