ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has held K-Electric (KE) responsible for frequent outages in Karachi and cited the utility’s lack of investment in its infrastructure and poor maintenance of its transmission and distribution system as the contributing factors.

In its preliminary findings on the recent power crisis in the city released on Monday, Nepra’s four-member fact-finding mission said the KE’s transmission and distribution network could not sustain when full load was injected, resulting in tripping and breakdown.

Nepra is expected to finalise its report soon. The fact-finding committee has been constituted on the directive of the cabinet committee on energy headed by the prime minister to investigate reasons for frequent power failures in Karachi.

The committee comprises consultants Masood Ahmad Khan and Javed Pervaiz, senior adviser (technical) Hussain Zaigham Alvi and Mazhar Ranjha, director (standards).

The committee said its members had visited the areas affected by outages in Karachi, met electricity consumers and held a series of meetings with the KE management. It said the K-Electric had optimally utilised its generation resources during the crisis, but when it injected 2,500-2,700MW into its transmission and distribution system, it could not sustain the load which resulted in tripping and breakdown.

Fact-finding committee says in its report KE has not made appropriate investment in strengthening and improving its transmission and distribution systems

It also noted problems with the KE’s loadshedding criteria, which the federal government is also following in other power distribution companies.

The report said the KE had categorised feeders from low loss to very high and carried out loadshedding for 7.5 hours on very high loss feeders and six hours on high loss feeders on a daily basis between 8am and 6pm. “This meant that power supply was provided for only two hours in a day in very high loss areas”.

“In addition to loadshedding, system faults and tripping added to power cuts which resulted in no electricity for certain areas during an entire day,” the report said.

It said the KE had not made appropriate investment in strengthening and improving its transmission and distribution systems which had cast a negative impact on supply and service quality and reliability.

Nepra said the committee was preparing a final report on the basis of which action would be taken in accordance with law.

The power ministry had asked the regulator to investigate the KE’s underutilisation of its generation capacity and non-compliance of its investment commitments with the government, which were being discussed in parliament.

The ministry said the reports of frequent tripping and analysis showed that the KE had not made sufficient investment to improve its distribution system.

It said since Nepra had repeatedly written letters to the KE about its non-compliance of different laws, particularly the performance standards, it should now look into the current situation. It asked Nepra to conduct an in-depth audit of the matter.

Water and Power Secretary Mohammad Younas Dagha had also visited KE headquarters along with Nepra Chairman Tariq Sadozai on the weekend, leading to removal of the top KE officials.

But this is in contrast to a testimony by Privatisation Minister Mohammad Zubair before a Senate committee last week in which he described the KE as a “success story being taught in Harvard Business School as a case study”. He said six-hour loadshedding was carried out on a daily basis in Lahore but Karachi faced only “six hours” of power breakdown in a month.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2015

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