Daily Times

KARACHI: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has requested the Ministry of Energy (MoE) to intervene immediately to resolve the matter of unscheduled load-shedding in Karachi, saying that the situation may lead to a law and order issue in the metropolis.

Showing its concerns on the recent issue of extended power cuts in Karachi reportedly due to gas curtailment by Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) to K-Electric (KE), the authority, in a letter sent to MoE, stated, “With the onset of an early summer and the month of Ramazan approaching soon, the KE supply and demand gap is bound to widen which may lead to a law and order situation”. The power regulator, in order to ascertain the situation, deputed a team of senior professionals who visited Karachi from April 11 to 13, and examined all relevant matters. Nepra team held detailed discussions with KE professionals and inspected its power generation plants and conducted field surveys of the consumers of KE.

The team has presented its findings before the authority and a number of areas have been identified which need to be addressed for improvement in the prevailing conditions, Nepra has informed the MoE. Of these, on some of the matters which are linked to the regulator, however, Nepra observes that gas curtailment is one of the major issues which needs to be resolved on priority.

In the letter, a copy of which is available with this scribe, the Nepra said, “We feel that the present situation cannot be continued for indefinite period as even if KE takes corrective measures, the suffering of consumers cannot be fully eliminated”.

The Nepra further stated, “it is also pertinent to mention with the onset of an early summer and the month of Ramazan approaching soon, the KE supply and demand gap is bound to widen which may lead to a law and order situation, in economic terms, also due to constrained supply, the KE is pressed to carryout load shedding in the industry, for which cost of unnerved energy is very high as it directly hurts the economy of the country.

“Keeping in view the aggravating power outages situation in the metropolis, the Nepra recommends to MoE that the gas supply to KE by SSGC must be restored immediately to 190 MMFCD and maintained at such level till October, so that the consumers do not suffer during summer months.”

The power authority also recommended that the federal government, through MoE being 24 percent shareholder of KE, may convene an emergent meeting of the board of directors to resolve the problem on long term basis. “The MoE may also convene a meeting of KE and SSGCL to work out methodology for signing of GSA between KE and SSGCL,” it added.

Published in Daily Times, April 20^th 2018.