ISLAMABAD: Power Division and K-Electric (KE) on Tuesday confirmed that both parties are likely to initial three long-awaited pacts in a couple of weeks including supply of 1050-MW to the power utility on a regular basis whereas same quantity of power will be available on pro-rata basis.
This was revealed by Additional Secretary Power Division, Zafar Abbas and CEO KE-Electric, Syed Moonis Abdullah Alvi while briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Power, held under the chairmanship of Senator Saifullah Abro.
A committee headed by former Prime Minister, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is leading government’s team to negotiate with KE team.
The draft Power Purchase Agency Agreement (PPAA) between KE and CPPA-G, and a draft Interconnection Agreement (IA) between KE and NTDC for supply of up to 2,050-MW to KE from national grid was initialled on November 10, 2021 for approval of the CCoE/ Cabinet. A draft Tariff Differential Subsidy (TDS) agreement was also initialled on November 10, 2021 between KE and Power Division. However, there were a few open items on which discussions were ongoing and had to be decided at a higher forum.
“I hope the agreements will be initialled within the next few weeks after which Power Division will submit these drafts to the Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) or Economic Coordination Committee (ECC),” said Abbas.
The Standing Committee was further informed that total claims of receivables of CPPA-G against KE stood at Rs 490 billion whereas the undisputed amount of KE’s receivables was Rs 350 billion; in addition, an amount of Rs 140 billion is disputed to be settled through Mediation or Arbitration by one of last three Attorney Generals.
Commenting on the delay in the finalization of the agreement, Senator Fida Muhammad questioned CEO K-Electric as to why the agreement could not be finalized since 2015 and who was responsible for the delay, to which Senator Saifullah Abro remarked that the finalization of the agreement should not be the headache of K-Electric and the Power Division should ensure resolution of the matter.
Sharing an update regarding the receivable and payable position of the company, CEO K-Electric apprised the members of the committee that K-Electric’s total payable towards government stood at PKR 407.7 billion while total receivables from different federal and provincial government entities stood at 483.6 billion with a net receivable of Rs 76.7 billion.
Chairman of the committee Senator Saifullah Abro asked for an update on power supply situation to Balochistan agricultural tube-wells at which CEO K-Electric stated that as of 2022 there are 1,434 tube-well connections in Balochistan region while the billing throughout the year amounted to Rs1046 million and KE, despite its fullest effort, was only able to recover Rs141 million or just 14%.
Chairman Standing Committee, Senator Abro and his likeminded Senator Fida Muhammad raised questions on proposed agreements and payment to be made by the government to the power utility company.
The Committee also discussed power breakdown of January 23, 2023 in detail and Senator Asad Junejo, who is also an engineer, quizzed top brass of National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) and National Power Control Centre (NPCC) for their failure to contain range of fault through equipments.
General Manager, NPCC, Sajjad Akhtar informed the Committee that the breakdown of January 23 was due to human negligence, import of wind power, and non-availability of equipment which can cut the faulty part of transmission line with other parts of the system.
He further stated that seven attempts to start Tarbela failed due to its modernization after which efforts were made to start other plants which have back starter facility.
Responding to a question raised by Senator Asad Junejo, General Manager NPCC informed that his organization does not receive real time data from generation plants at the time of breakdown, adding data of grid station of Discos is also not available with NPCC.
The Committee criticised the Power Division for not notifying its proposed Committee headed by Syed Tanvir Jafari, former CEO JPCL, to investigate power breakdown and directed Additional Secretary Power Division to notify the Committee on Wednesday (today) and share its notification with the Committee Secretary.
The Committee decided to defer this issue till next meeting, hoping to get a report from the Committee headed by Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, Musadik Malik.
The Standing Committee also constituted a sub-committee headed by Senator Shibli Faraz to evaluate the CVs of Board Members of Discos, after Additional Secretary Power Division stated that construction of Boards of Discos, NTDC and Gencos are being reviewed in the light of new law on State Owned Entities (SOEs).
Beside others, the meeting was attended by Senator, Haji Hadayatullah Khan, Senator Zeeshan Khanzada and Senator Saifullah Nyazee.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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