Power crisis: Load-shedding not to exceed 10 hours, says PHC

Bench asks WAPDA to restrict free electricity for employees.

PESHAWAR: Load-shedding should not exceed 10 hours a day in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), the Peshawar High Court (PHC) ordered on Wednesday.

The bench further asked the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) to provide details on free electricity units being offered to its employees.

The court directed Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) Chief Executive Brigadier (retd) Tariq Sadozai to remove name plates outside Wapda employees’ homes which indicate their place of employment. This would help ensure their meters are checked for usage and theft.

It also issued notices to Sadozai, Wapda employee union president and Wapda employee union general secretary to increase salaries instead of providing free electricity units.

The PHC bench, comprising Chief Justice Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Roohul Amin, was hearing a suo motu notice taken on excessive power outages in K-P. It also asked the National Transmission and Distribution Company (NTDC) to refrain from scheduling load-shedding out of K-P’s share of electricity.

K-P’s total electricity consumption is between 2,400 megawatts to 2,700 megawatts, according to Pesco Chief Executive Sadozai. The province, however, has been supplied 1,200 megawatts over the last five months. The supply has been increased to 1,600 megawatts in the last few days, he added.

Sadozai said 192 power generators at 90 grid stations in the province were functional, while 25 power generators were overloaded because of ‘kundas’ (illegal connections).

The bench observed hydel power (generated in K-P at low cost) was being mixed with thermal power (generated at a higher cost outside the province) but the province was not getting any benefit.

“We care for every corner of the country but power generated at Rs15 per unit is being mixed with power generated at Rs2 per unit and then supplied to us,” observed Justice Khan.

Sadozai blamed the excessive power outages on the recent attack on Shaikh Muhammadi grid station. He complained the government was not providing security for such installations despite several requests.

Sadozai, however, failed to answer why there were 20-hour-long power cuts in parts of the province, at which point the bench said load-shedding cannot exceed 10 hours.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 6^th, 2013.