Conversion of power units: NEPRA asked to redo public hearing

AKLA says National Electric Power Regulatory Authority did not fulfill all requisites for a public hearing

The AKLA has highlighted that the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) did not fulfill all requisites for a public hearing in connection with an application of K-Energy (Pvt) Limited (KEPL) for grant of generation licence for two 210MW power plants.

In a letter, addressed to Nepra Vice Chairman Habibullah Khilji, the whistleblower said it had expected that prior to holding this public hearing, the authority would frame issues and communicate the same in order to hold a meaningful hearing.

“However, this has not been done even though a number of material questions were raised in [an earlier] letter dated August 9, 2014,” it said, adding that the sub-rule 2 of Rule 9 of the Nepra Tariff Rules prescribes the framing of issues for public hearings.

“But unfortunately neither the issues for this hearing were advertised in the
press nor communicated through letters sent separately to different stakeholders despite the fact that the AKLA had communicated several Issues in the matter to Nepra,” it said.

It said it is the statutory duty of Nepra to decide all cases judiciously and to protect the interest of all parties –specially the consumers, who, it said,  generally do not have any effective representation due to time and resource constraints.

The whistleblower demanded that a new hearing be held after the framing and communication of Issues. “This request merits to be accepted not only on the principle of consistency and fair play, but even more importantly owing to the significance of the questions, which have arisen for consideration by the authority for the very first time,” the letter said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2014.