Nepra clarification

This is apropos to a news item published in the national newspapers on February 24 2015, with the caption "Load shedding won't end by 2020" Nepra has clarified that while referring to Nepra A State of Industry Report 2014 have completely failed to divulge upon the context in which the matter has been discussed in the report.
The relevant tables and the accompanying paragraphs provide peak time statistics about installed capacity, and the projected demands in NTDC and K-Electric systems. It may be noted that while the peak demand in the NTDC system stands at 23,242 MW in 2014-15 the installed capacity is almost equal to it as 23,928 MW. Over the coming years, it is planned to add new power generation capacity as follows as indicated in the report:

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2015-16      593  MW

2016-17      3380 MW

2017-18      4261 MW

2018-19      3561 MW

2019-20      3940 MW

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With the result that by 2019-20 against a demand of 28,773 MW, the installed capacity in the NTDC's system is expected to be 39,663 MW. Nepra report in succeeding paragraph touches upon the gap between the expected capability of the plants and the demand, only at the Peak Time. Even such a gap at peak time gradually reduces and it is projected to be less than 1000 MW by 2018-19, whereas in 2019-20 a complete turnaround has been projected with a surplus of more than 1100 MW at the peak time. It is also to be noted that the Report in the same paragraph emphasises that timely completion of projects, performance improvements and elimination of fuel constraints will provide relief to consumers.
Nowhere does Nepra report refer to load shedding as has been referred by the media reports. By not providing underlying facts and ignoring the subsequent observations the news reports have presented a distorted picture.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2015