LAHORE: Several electricity consumers having solar net metering connections have criticised the Lahore Electric Supply Company for not calculating and mentioning the units they exported/sold to the company in the bill of the ongoing month of March.

They termed it a ‘fraud’ allegedly on the part of Lesco with them and demanded the ministry of energy (power division) and National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) to take action against the company in this regard.

“It was really shocking when I received my March bill wherein the column mentioning the number of units exported to Lesco was empty reflecting 00 that means no units were exported in March despite export of 1,200 units,” a consumer explained while talking to Dawn on Tuesday.

The consumer said he wondered after he found the meter picture on the bill as mentioned in the February bill.

Solar users cast aspersions on policy shift

He said he immediately contacted some of his neighbours who also received bills having no information regarding the units sold/exported to Lesco.

Another consumer, who lives in a known housing society situated at Barki Road said he, after receiving the bill, lodged an online complaint.

“But surprisingly, after a few hours, I received a message from Lesco stating that my issue has been resolved. I wondered as no one from Lesco neither contacted or visited my house nor corrected the bill,” he deplored.

Later, he said, he visited the office of the respective SDO. First he (the SDO) rejected the complaint, terming it a minor matter. But when his attention was drawn toward affixing of the previous month’s meter pictures on the bill, he (the SDO) admitted the fault, assuring that the issue would be resolved soon.

The consumers, who received such faulty bills and contactedDawnin this regard, included Kashif Hussain, Tariq Fareed Khan, Farman, Iftikhar Ahmad, Ghulam Abbas, Muhammad Shahid Mukhtar, Inaam Farid Khan, Zeeshanullah and Javaid Iqbal.

When contacted, a spokesman for Lesco said he also received a couple of complaints.

“Most of the complainants were the residents of Paragon City housing society (Barki Road). On receiving information, I also investigated the matter,” he said.

He said he reached a conclusion that the Lesco officials concerned did it keeping in view the media reports related to the government’s decision of introducing net-billing system, abolishing the existing net-metering model.

“They did it assuming how they will recover the amounts from the consumers if the government introduces the new system in March.

But as the new system is for new consumers, the existing consumers’ [exported] units would be adjusted by Lesco soon since the computerised system has all records,” he explained.

“Therefore, the consumers shouldn’t worry about this,”

he said.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2025