ISLAMABAD: Prompted by the Supreme Court’s directives, the power division and power regulator on Friday appeared to be setting in motion actions against K-Electric for its inability to restore power supply to its consumers following recent torrential rains.

Official sources told Dawn that top officials of the power division and the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) had held a series of meetings, both internally and with each other, on power supply situation in Karachi and decided to take every measure possible under the law to put the KE affairs in order.

These meetings were attended by federal Energy Minister Omar Ayub Khan, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on power Shahzad Qasim, Power Secretary Omar Rasool and Nepra top brass to examine what coordinated actions could be taken as directed by the apex court early this week.

Senior officials will visit Karachi to hold discussion with company management

The sources said that Mr Qasim and Additional Secretary of Power Waseem Mukhtar, who is also a director on the KE board, would be reaching Karachi to meet the company’s management and seek immediate convening of a meeting of its board of directors. The federal government has three members on the 13-member KE board but an official indicated that some private members had also been contacted for cooperation to examine KE accounts and see if funds allocated for grid system augmentation and removal of system bottlenecks had been diverted towards profits.

“Every effort would be made through the board and, if necessary, through a general meeting to secure maximum relief in terms of loadshedding without taking into consideration the existing criteria for high, medium and low losses,” an official said.

He said Mr Qasim and Mr Waseem were being sent to Karachi on special instructions of Prime Minister Imran Khan. He declined to go into details, except that a board meeting of KE was being stipulated for Monday.

Separately, Nepra said in a statement that it had “taken serious notice of deaths due to electrocution occurred in Karachi during the recent rain spells in the months of July and August 2020”. It said the authority had appointed an investigation committee, headed by the director general (monitoring and enforcement), to proceed to Karachi and conduct an investigation against K-Electric to ascertain the facts and possible violations of Nepra laws.

“The investigation committee after completing the investigation shall submit a detailed report to the authority for further appropriate action in accordance with law”.

On Monday, Nepra had announced that it had “imposed a fine of Rs200 million on K-Electric for carrying-out excessive load-shedding in Karachi during the months of June and July, 2020 and violating Nepra Act, terms and conditions of its licence(s) and directions given by the authority in its multi-year tariff”.

The very next day (on Tuesday) the Supreme Court had expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of all three stakeholders — the power division, Nepra and the KE. It had asked the KE to use its own resources to clear its sub-stations and other distribution network of rainwater and restore power supply. The court had also highlighted that it did not see any impediment why Nepra was not empowered to give effect to the related law, adding the authority might proceed to implement Section 26 of the Nepra act and make its determination.

Section 26 of Nepra law empowers the regulator to change the KE’s licecnce and allow other players for competition. A power division official said the KE exclusivity was set to expire in July 2023.

The apex court had also assured the regulator that while making such determination, the authority would not be hampered by any court, either by issuance of any injunctive order or any writ. “The authority, after making the determination, within a month, will file a report before this court,” the court had ordered.

The court had held that being a private company, K-Electric could not wait for any assistance from the government but had to ensure power supply on its own. The court had questioned the government’s writ in the matter and was angered that the power division and Nepra appeared to have no coordination.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2020