The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) on Friday imposed a fine of Rs 10 million on K-Electric (KE) for failure to provide uninterrupted electric power services to its consumers and deliberately underutilising its available generation capacity.
The NEPRA decision said that failing to provide uninterrupted electric power services and restoring the power of affected consumers within reasonable time, the authority hereby imposed a fine of Rs 5 million to be paid by the KE within 30 days of issuance of this decision.
In respect of underutilisation of its available generation capacity, the authority imposed a fine of Rs 5 million to be paid by the KE within 30 days of issuance of this decision. If the KE continues with the practice of reducing or underutilising its generation capacity, strict punitive action would be taken against it, the decision said.
In respect of failure to provide electric power services to all consumers on non-discriminatory basis, the authority directed the KE to provide electric power services to all consumers without any discrimination who meet the consumer eligibility criteria and are neither defaulters nor involved in theft of electricity.
Earlier in June 2015, extended hours of load shedding, system failures and power supply breakdowns were noted in the service territory of K-Electric resulting in serious complaints by the consumers of KE.
The authority constituted a fact finding committee to collect necessary information and submit a report of its findings. After considering the recommendations and information submitted by the committee, the authority issued a show-cause notice to the KE.
Regarding overloading, tripping and other distribution and transmission failures, the authority took serious notice of failure of the KE to properly maintain and upgrade its distribution and transmission system, however, considering the commitment of KE to improve its system and investment plan of around 400 million dollars the authority decided to provide an opportunity to the KE to increase its generation capacity and improve its transmission and distribution system strictly in accordance with the investment plans submitted by it.
The authority also directed the KE to complete all indicated investment plans within the timelines and file quarterly reports to the authority. The authority further decided that in case of failure of the KE to follow instructions/directions of the authority and non-implementation of committed investment plans, the authority will be constrained to take further punitive actions under Section 28 of NEPRA Act.