LAHORE: Data submitted by the distribution companies (DISCOs) to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) is significantly fudged, said Performance Evaluation Report 2018-19 of the Authority.
Accordingly, NEPRA took serious actions and legal proceedings against PESCO, IESCO, MEPCO and K-Electric were initiated due to non-compliance with Performance Standards and Codes of Conduct and also due to misreporting of data. After following whole process including hearing opportunities, PESCO, IESCO and K-Electric were penalized with the fines of Rs6 million, Rs4 million and Rs3 million respectively. Meanwhile, proceedings against MEPCO are ongoing. Previously in the FY 2017-18, LESCO, FESCO, GEPCO were penalized with the fine amounts of Rs4 million each. Moreover, SEPCO and HESCO were also penalized with the fines of Rs6 million and Rs5 million respectively. Therefore, the reports sir that NEPRA has also decided to abandon the exercise of Performance Ranking of distribution companies this year, till the time reliable data is received. Interestingly, DISCOs have no concept of computerized data base system which is necessary requirement of the relevant law.
It may be noted that each distribution company is required to submit to NEPRA an Annual Performance Report (APR) in a prescribed format Under Performance Standards (Distribution) Rules (PSDR) 2005. According to report, QESCO, SEPCO, HESCO, PESCO, and IESCO have failed to achieve full recoveries in FY 2018-19. This has resulted in a huge loss to national exchequer i.e. Rs171.5 billion which is 200% more than the last year i.e. 2017-18.
The data submitted by DISCOs for the FY 2018-19 does not reflect ground realities as NEPRA team during visits of different DISCOs found that 100 to 200 connections per sub-division were pending since last six months. Whereas, the data shows that IESCO, PESCO and HESCO have provided almost 100% percent connections within the time frame as prescribed in PSDR 2005. Further, LESCO, QESCO and K-Electric have submitted that they have also provided more than 95% of applied connections in 2018-19.
Unfortunately, the report added, during visits of different DISCOs NEPRA team found complaint centres in poor and deteriorated conditions. No proper telephone sets and registers to enter the complaint are available and even the staff was found unaware about such mechanism. NEPRA has serious reservations over the data submitted by the distribution companies which shows that SEPCO did not receive any single complaint in a day in any of its complaint centre. Similarly, PESCO, MEPCO, QESCO, FESCO and HESCO also received only 2 to 3 complaints per day in each of their complaint centres in FY 2018-19.
It said the Fiscal Year 2018-19 has given a dreadful picture with respect to number of fatalities for employees and public occurred in all distribution companies i.e. 175 which is around 14% more than the last year 2017-18. The report also depicts a terrible figure of fatal accidents for the period from July to December, 2019 i.e. 120. During both the periods, KE's share remained high with the number of 54 and 52 followed by PESCO and IESCO. NEPRA Authority took serious notice of such increasing number of fatalities in Karachi and service territories of PESCO and IESCO and decided to conduct investigations under Section 27A of the NEPRA Act. Accordingly, investigation against K-Electric was conducted and based on the findings of investigation report K-Electric has been penalized by Rs50 Million along with some directions particularly regarding completion of earthling/grounding of its distribution system in order to adhere with safety standards and develop safety culture in its service territory. Further, investigations against PESCO and IESCO on account of fatal accidents occurred during the period of July to Dec, 2019 are ongoing.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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