ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has made amendments in the licenses of government-owned power sector companies (DISCOs), imposing a ban on power generation from a 195mw unit of the Northern Power Generation Company (NPGC) in Multan, documents revealed on Tuesday.

The official documents available with Dawn News disclosed that the regulatory authority had introduced amendments in the license of NPGC after consulting stakeholders. Last year, the authority itself initiated proceedings on the matter of amendments. With this decision, NEPRA has imposed a ban on the production and sale of power from NPGC’s 195mw Multan unit at Peeran Ghaib (Multan) which has completed its designed age.

Officials at NEPRA said that despite completing the defined age limit, the NPGC violated merit order by continuing power production from the unit at Peeran Ghaib.

They said these power units were causing a heavy burden on power consumers. “With effect to the said amendments in the license, NPGC will be authorised to generate electricity from the power units installed at Muzaffargarh and Faisalabad and company’s installed capacity has decreased from 1926mw to 1726mw,” said a senior NEPRA official.

In another amendment made in the licenses of Jamshoro Power Generation Company Limited (JPGCL), NEPRA has increased the installed capacity of JPGCL by 1200mw. Under the amendment, the total installed capacity of JPGCL has increased from 774mw and has now reached 1974mw. With this amendment, JPGCL has been authorised to generate and sell 1200mw of electricity from a coal power plant at Jamshoro.

Similarly, Nepra has approved amendments in the license of NTDC (National Transmission and Dispatch Company) under which NTDC will be able to sell electricity to all distribution companies (DISCOs) legally. Earlier, NTDC was authorised to sell electricity to only eight DISCOs.

Meanwhile, the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company has been stopped from selling electricity to power consumers of districts of Khairpur, Kandhkot, Jaccobabad , Shikarpur, Larkana, Qambar Shahdadkot .

With effect to Nepra’s amendments in HESCO’s license, only Sukkur Electric Supply Company will be allowed to sell electricity to the said districts of Sindh province.

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