I INSTALLED a 10KW solar power generation system, at my residence in Oct 2019 after obtaining necessary approval from the competent authority. My connected load approved by K-Electric in the year 2002 is 11KW. The K-Electric replaced my old conventional meter with a state-of-the art bi-directional special meter as this meter has the ability not only to record electricity used by the customer himself (import) but also register/record the power exported to the K-Electric grid.

I decided to enhance my solar generation capacity from 10KW to 20KW, and I applied for an additional 9KW load to have total sanctioned load of 20KW. When I received my Jan 2020 bill, I was shocked to see that my sanctioned load has been reduced from the current 11KW to 09KW. For three months I made eight visits to KE’s Integrated Business Centre in Gulistan-i-Jauher for rectification of the mistake. On each visit, the K-Electric concerned staff assured me that the error would be rectified but this was not done.

Since K-Electric had not rectified the error, I sought the help of this newspaper and my letter was published on March 9 this year. The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority took notice of my issue.

I received a telephone call from DGM-IBC who asked me to visit his office where he apologised and directed the concerned staff to carry out a load survey of my house and issue the required estimate for additional security deposit.

The K-Electric hand delivered the estimate the next day and I deposited the required amount in a bank without noticing that this time K-Electric had again made a mistake and instead of sanctioning total load of 20KW, my connected load was sanctioned as 29KW. This mistake came to my notice when I started to fill the required test form. Meanwhile K-Electric misguided NEPRA officials shifting the blame on me.

Thankfully, Nepra shared its correspondence in this respect with me and sought an explanation from K-Electric.

I am still in a quandary as the needed load has still not been sanctioned neither have I received the current bill. This is an appeal to the higher K-Electric authorities and NEPRA to have mercy on a senior citizen and resolve his issue.

Shakil Ahmed Bokhari
Karachi

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2020