KE CEO says consumers to face load-shedding till they pay bills

K-Electric Chief Executive Officer Moonis Abdullah Alvi said the power utility's consumers will continue experiencing load-shedding until they pay bills.

Speaking at Express Tribune podcast, the K-Electric chief said the utility's ATNC loss is less than the average loss across the country at 28 per cent. Besides, the efficiency of power plants has improved from 30 per cent on aggregate basis to 45 per cent.

He said the aggregate technical and commercial loss has slumped to 20 per cent from 42 per cent that was at the time of privatization.

"We have spent around $4 billion on generation, transmission and distribution," said Alvi, adding the investment has made the company efficient.

To a question, he said people come on roads to protest against the load-shedding and they will keep coming as long as they are facing power shutdown. He added that power consumers would keep facing load-shedding unless they pay for the electricity they consume or stop stealing electricity.

The K-Electric CEO highlighted that the electricity in Karachi is supplied through 2,200 feeders. Of them, 70 per cent feeders are exempted from load-shedding. The rest of the areas face load-shedding due to Kunda connections.

"We are unable to remove Kunda connections from those areas despite our concerted efforts. Even, when we removed them, they were reconnected to the supply lines," said Alvi, adding, "It is not possible for us to provide free electricity".

He said the regulator has set K-Electric tariff at Rs40 per unit while the tariff for the other Discos is determined at Rs33 per unit. The K-E consumers are paying for per unit electricity at par power consumers across the country.

Alvi noted the generation cost of K-Electric is Rs32 while the generation cost for the Discos across the country is Rs26, which includes nuclear and hydel power.