Consolidating power: State-owned electricity generation companies merged into one
The government has also named a 10-member board of directors, and dissolved the individual boards of each company. The board, which consists of both civil servants as well as the well-known executives of various companies from the power sector, will be responsible for the affairs of the four companies, and will have the CEOs of each firm report directly to them.
The move is part of the government’s plan to restructure and reform the state-owned segments of the power sector – still the largest generators of electricity in the country.
The four companies are the Jamshoro Power Company, Central Power Generation Company, Northern Power General Company and Lakhra Power Generation Company. Between the four of them, they have the capacity to produce 5,645 megawatts of electricity, more than a quarter of the country’s total.
The new Genco Holding Company would inherit the 44 power plants owned by the four companies, as well as agreements with at least 6 rental power companies. All of them, except Lakhra, run on oil and gas. Lakhra runs on coal, for the most part, though its rental plants run on oil.
Among the board members are Asad Umar, the CEO of the Engro Corporation, one of the largest conglomerates in the country that also has interests in the power sector. Razaq Dawood, the chairman of Descon, an integrated engineering firm, is also on the board as is Pervaiz Khan, CEO of Uch Power. Others include Zargham Ishaq Khan, the joint secretary at the power ministry, Ali Jameel, Amir Qawi, Khursheed Jamali, Kamran Mirza, Muhammad Arshad, and Naveed Allauddin.
Among the other changes announced were a new board of directors for the Central Power Purchasing Agency and the Sukkur Electric Power Company.
The CPPA is a division of the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC), which operates the physical infrastructure of the electricity grid in the entire country except Karachi and some parts of Lasbela district in Balochistan (which are covered by the Karachi Electric Supply Company, the only integrated power company in the country.)
The new CPPA board includes the CEO of the company as well as Water and Power Secretary Imtiaz Kazi, NTDC Managing Director Rasul Khan Mehsur, Kot Addu Power Company CEO Aftab Mehmood Butt, Jamshoro Power Company CEO Muhammad Akram Arian, Peshawar Electric Supply Company CEO Muhammad Wali, Siemens Pakistan CEO Sohail Wajahat Siddiqui, and Haji Bashir Ahmed (chairman of the Sitara Group, a local conglomerate that also has interests in the power sector) among others. Siddiqui is also the chairman of the board of directors at Pakistan State Oil.
The Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco) is one of eight state-owned distribution companies that handle the consumer end of the power business – i.e. the actual billing and collection of power tariffs from users of electricity.
The new board at Sepco includes large landowners such as Imran Bakhsh Sheikh, Syed Zohaib Ali Shah, the vice chancellor of Khairpur University, a few civil servants and one nominee from the privatisation commission.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 4th, 2011.
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