The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) on Friday issued a show-cause notice to the K-Electric (KE) for constantly failing to fulfill its service obligation.
According to the notice issued under sections 28 and 29 of the NEPRA Act, the KE has not only failed to ensure uninterrupted power supplies to the consumers but also failed to “dispatch power from its own plants and the IPPs causing a reduction and deliberate under-utilisation of the available generation capacity at various times.”
While accusing the service provider of practicing discrimination between its consumer and group of consumers, the power regulatory authority has asked the KE to respond to the notice within 15 days.
The NEPRA alleged that by operating its generation facilities without cushion or back up against the prudent utility practices, the KE had put its customers at the risk of non-provision of electricity in the event of any fault. It has also failed to restore power supply of power to the affected consumers in case of unscheduled breakdown within the specified time limit, said the NEPRA.
The power regulatory authority has also accused the KE of providing misleading and incorrect information instead of providing vital information required by the authority.
Earlier, a fact-finding mission had accused that the sole power distributor in Karachi had not made adequate investments in its transmission and distribution systems, seriously affecting service quality, reliability and supply to the consumers. The recent heat wave, however, exposed the inefficient system of the only private electricity provider in Pakistan when temperatures in excess of 40 degrees centigrade crashed the power network causing hours-long outages in almost all areas of Karachi.
More than 1,200 people have died in the past week with experts attributing the deaths to unprecedented weather pattern coupled with prolonged power outages. The federal government has also told the Supreme Court that the KE had been intentionally and consistently under-utilising its plants and relying on energy from the national grid despite having sufficient capacity. The centre also claimed to have doled out Rs 269.5 billion in subsidies to the KE, which has failed to meet the energy demands of the country’s largest city.
‘KE received no show-cause’:
However, KE spokesman Usama Qureshi claimed the company did not receive any show-cause notice from NEPRA.
The spokesman further said KE cooperated fully with NEPRA’s fact-finding team when it visited Karachi.
