In view of the present electricity crisis in the country it is interesting to know that how the consumer rules set by National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) are openly being violated by distribution companies. Karachiites are facing over 1080 hours of planned power outages against the only 80 hours scheduled breakdowns allowed by Nepra.
In violation of the "Guaranteed Standard of Planned Long Duration Power Supply Interruption" of Nepra, KESC is disconnecting the power supply to its over two million consumers for over 1080 hours yearly with a normal scheduled loadshedding of over three hours a day and more than 90 hours a month.
Besides this the unscheduled and frequent power outages are also going on in the city without any restriction. Though the government's regulatory authority has clearly mentioned in its distribution performance standards that the urban consumers consuming the sanctioned load of 400/230 volts would not be disconnected for 2.6 hours a month, the same consumers were facing 90 to 100 hours a month in the city.
Under the guaranteed standard-4 (GS) of Nepra, only 16 hours of loadshedding was allowed to the urban consumers however, 80 hours of breakdowns were allowed under its GS-5 due to the distribution system overloading or inadequacies in a distribution company.
Under the GS-5 of authority's rule, maximum interruptions, aggregated durations(hours) for each individual consumer of 132/66kV and above, 33/11kV and 400/230 volts was allowed only 36 hours, 64 hours and 80 hours respectively per annum. KESC is not only violating the numbers of scheduled load shedding but it was also neglecting the timings of power outages as under the Nepra's standard, a distribution company would make efforts that the supply to consumers is not disconnected before 6am and is restored by 5pm, in winter, during the period the October, 16 to the April, 15; and is not disconnected before 5am and is restored by 6pm, in summer, during the period April, 16 to the October, 15 or any other convenient time to the consumers.
But on the contrary, majority of the scheduled outages were being done by the company during 5pm to 6am while neglecting the loadshedding criteria of the authority. Besides the company is also not meeting Nepra's criteria of number of unscheduled/unplanned loadshedding as the authority's rules restrict the loadshedding to only 60 hours per year, while the masses in the city are use to face hours long breakdowns in the city due to what the sources said various faults frequently occurred in the distribution system of KESC.
According to the Guaranteed Standards of Performance a distribution company shall implement guaranteed standards of performance for each and every individual consumer as specified in Sub-Rule (3) of the authority. In the event of Planned Power Supply Interruptions, notice shall be served to all affected consumers at least forty-eight hours in advance of any such planned interruption excluding defence establishments where Planned Power Supply Interruptions shall only be taken through mutual agreement. However, people are forced to face the hours long break downs without any earlier notices.
According to sources, the company is only respecting the Nepra rules which are of its own interests while the others being mostly violated saying that these were made in Islamabad against the ground situation of Karachi.