National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has taken a serious notice of unscheduled and long duration of load shedding in the city and directed Nepra's technical team to visit Karachi and compile a report on the existing situation. The team will scrutinise the load shedding situation along with the generation and electric control rules. "The team should inspect load shedding circumstances, as we don't want to face a similar situation like last year," said Chairman Nepra.
He further maintained that the regulator got the information through media that Karachiites are facing severe problems due to load shedding. On the other hand, KE officials claimed that there is no load shedding at the time of Sehri and Iftar in Karachi. On enquiring from Chairman Nepra, General Manager National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) revealed that the NTDC cannot provide 650 MW electricity to KE at current rates. He further stated that Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) between NTDC and KE has expired, adding that if directions are issued from federal government or Nepra, electricity supply to KE will be suspended.
General Manager NDTC further stated: "We are running dearest thermal power plants to provide electricity to KE". According to an agreement signed with the GoP, KE has to enhance its generation capacity within five years. However, KE officials informed the regulator that the power utility is implementing its generation enhancement plan, adding that load shedding in Karachi will be eliminated by 2020 instead of 2017. Meanwhile, Nepra has approved a refund of Rs 16 per unit for the consumers of K-Electric for April 2016 under multi- year tariff formula that will be passed on in the bills of July 2016. According to KE, fuel cost variation of KE's own generation was Rs 175.807 million whereas fuel cost variation from external generation resources has been calculated at Rs 403.540 million, totalling Rs 227.733 million. The power utility supplied 1.437875 billion units in April.
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