Following the protest of over 4,000 employees of the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC), the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has summoned the power company’s management to Islamabad today (Monday). NEPRA served the notice to the KESC on the order of Petroleum Minister Naveed Qamar, who took notice of the prolonged electricity breakdowns in various areas of the metropolis, resulting from the stand-off between the power company’s management and its labour union.
The minister also told the authority that the KESC management’s stance is unjustified, and that suspension of power supply to a large number of city’s areas for several days is inexcusable. The power company’s management would appear at NEPRA’s hearing in Islamabad on Monday to expound the company’s views over the burning issue. According to sources, the KESC is likely to blame its inability to ensure smooth power supply on the ongoing strike of its workers.
Experiencing long hours of electricity breakdowns, despite no fault on the part of the power consumers, is a sheer violation of consumer rules set by the authority. However, the power company’s management is likely to declare the situation ‘force majeure’ because, according to the KESC, its staff was forcefully refrained from carrying out its duties, causing severe disruption in supplying power to the city, sources said.
They added that the term ‘force majeure’ was applicable only in the case of natural calamities, unexpected major faults and other related situations. According to NEPRA’s standards, the power company is allowed only 80 hours of load shedding in a year, but the KESC is carrying out over 1,000 hours of planned load shedding yearly. Unscheduled load shedding and frequent electricity outages due to low power generation and technical faults are additional sources of woe for over two million power consumers in the city.
Though the authority has clearly mentioned in its distribution performance standards that power supply to the urban consumers could not be disconnected for over 2.6 hours a month, the same consumers are forced to be without electricity for up to 100 hours a month. The KESC is not only going over the limit of allowed hours of scheduled load shedding, but it is also neglecting the timings of power outages.
According to NEPRA’s standards, a power distribution company must ensure that power supply to consumers is not disconnected before 6:00 am and is restored by 5:00 pm between October 16 and April 15, and that it is not disconnected before 5:00 am and is restored by 6:00 pm between April 16 and October 15.
On the contrary, many scheduled outages are being carried out by the KESC during 5:00 pm and 6:00 am, violating the scheduled load shedding rules of the authority. Besides, the power company is also violating NEPRA’s rules regarding unscheduled load shedding by leaving various parts of the city without power for two or more days on the pretext of violent protest of its employees and subsequent closure of its offices. In most of the affected areas, consumers have been trying to rectify cable faults on their own because no one from the KESC is available.
