ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) issued a show-cause notice to the K-Electric on Friday for “its consistent failure to fulfil service obligations, inability to comply with prudent utility practices” and for misleading the regulator.

The show-cause notice was issued to the utility in exercise of powers under sections 28 and 29 of the Nepra Act, said the regulator’s spokesperson who switched off the mobile phone after issuing a brief statement.

The statement said the KE had been given 15 days to respond to the notice before any Nepra order might lead to imposition of fine or appointment of an administrator.

The notice was issued for the KE’s “consistent failure to fulfil its service obligations, failure to ensure uninterrupted power supplies to the consumers, failure to provide non-discriminatory distribution services within its licensed territory and its apparent discrimination between consumer and group of consumers,” the statement said.

It also accused the KE of failure to despatch electricity from its own plants and the IPPs causing a deliberate under-utilisation of the available generation capacity at various times.

The regulator said the “KE prima facie failed to comply with prudent utility practices by operating its generation facilities without cushion or back-up, keeping the consumer at risk of non-provision of electricity in the event of any fault”.

It also failed to restore the supply to the affected consumers in case of unscheduled or unplanned interruption in supply of power within the specified time limit.

The KE “failed to provide vital information as required by Nepra and instead provided misleading and incorrect information”.

The KE was “in consistent breach of its terms and conditions of licence in ensuring safe, reliable and efficient supply of electricity in accordance with requirements of its licence”, the regulator said.

Nepra had earlier constituted a fact-finding committee to ascertain the reasons behind extended hours of loadshedding and power supply breakdowns from June 18 to 24 in Karachi and the KE had been directed to make available the relevant data as well as staff to assist the committee.

Several issues and violations came to the notice of the regulator regarding implementation of performance standards and compliance of the Nepra Act and the rules and regulations, it added.

Reacting to the notice, KE spokesman Usama Qureshi said that Nepra’s attitude appeared to be biased. He alleged that Nepra was involved in a “media trial of the KE which was aimed at defaming the utility and its management”.

He said the KE had extended full cooperation to the regulator’s fact-finding committee when it visited Karachi two weeks ago.

He said all the records had also been shared with the Nepra chairman when he visited the KE’s offices along with the water and power secretary. During the visit it appeared that Nepra chairman would remain impartial in the matter.

Mr Qureshi said that Nepra was now resorting to controversial steps. Even though the regulator was requested to share with the utility the report of the fact-finding committee before its release to the public, the KE was kept in the dark about its findings.

He alleged that a couple of Nepra members have been working against the KE for long on the behest of certain people to malign the utility. He said that in its latest annual report Nepra had declared KE as the second best utility in the country but had now turned against it.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2015

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