Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) has vehemently refuted the baseless charges by Minister of State for Water and Power, Abid Sher Ali. KESC said that it had been complying with the Power Purchase Agreement with NTDC, and had not been causing any loss to Wapda as incorrectly claimed by the Minister.
KESC demanded of the government to take notice of the Minister's misstatement which could hamper the future privatisation process of power distribution companies in the country. The Minister's repeated allegations against KESC, the only private sector integrated power company majority owned by foreign investors which had invested over $1 billion and had shown significant improvement in its performance.
KESC stated that it had recently published comprehensive reply to all the allegations but the State Minister seemed to be unaware of this development. KESC said the Minister's criticism could work against the interests of the government which planned to privatise the state-run power companies in the near future.
KESC said that any unilateral action to disconnect NTDC power supply to Karachi was not permissible under the bilateral Power Purchase Agreement signed between NTDC and KESC in 2010, for a period of 5 years. KESC had strictly been receiving 650MWs as per terms and conditions of the Agreement. Therefore, any such charges of violating the agreement were inaccurate and against records.
KESC said that the irresponsible remarks from the Minister that the power utility had been "choking the whole country" were nothing but to secure media attention. He has no right to blame KESC for Wapda operating diesel-run power plants and it doesn't make sense to make such analogies between one company and the national grid. KESC also contradicted the Minister's claim of not operating its thermal generation plants and pointed out that these plants had been operating as per requirements and availability of fuel.
KESC said that all these allegations were not maintainable under law or facts. Binding stay orders had also been passed by the Sindh High Court in which NTDC, KESC, Federation of Pakistan and Nepra were all co-respondents and co-defendants. KESC reiterated its invitation to the representatives of the Ministry of Water and Power or the NTDC to visit its power supply network and resolve any confusion with regard to the readings. KESC said that it is fully compliant with the provisions of Power Purchase Agreement and in fact, KESC's monthly billing from NTDC in July 2013 was of 615MW, August 2013 was of 603MW and 632MW in September 2013.-PR
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