Power tariff reduced by Rs2.77 per unit for September

ISLAMABAD: In a stunning revelation, the government’s own National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) on Thursday disclosed before the Country’s power regulator (Nepra) that the government was deliberately not providing electricity to the consumers and has been following a schedule of six to eight hours power outages in the country.

“Despite the fact that there was ample capacity of energy generation to end power loadshedding in days, we had to follow the government’s provided schedule of loadshedding,” a top official of the NTDC told the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) in a public hearing on fuel price adjustment for the month of September 2016. The official said six to eight hours loadshedding is the policy of the government.

Chairman Nepra Brig (R) Tariq Saddozai while presiding over the hearing concluded that the distribution companies (Discos) had charged Rs6.4326 per unit on account of fuel cost to consumers in September but the actual fuel cost was significantly lower. So, it accorded that Rs2.77 per unit may be returned to ex-Wapda distribution companies for September 2016 under the monthly fuel price adjustment to pass on the benefit of the ‘cheaper cost of fuel for power generation’ to the domestic power consumers. 

Now, under this decision, the government will return Rs2.77 per unit to the consumers having a cumulative impact of around Rs20 billion. Expressing serious concern and grilling the NTDC for deliberate power loadshedding, Sadozai said that in September 49 percent of power plants were not operated. “Since the capacity is available, why did the government not utilise it and why the consumers are teased for long hours?” he questioned. 

It was observed that in September the high cost power generation units were deliberately operationalised while the low cost incurring units were kept idle that led to Rs6 billion losses. The authority expressed serious concern over keeping the Nandipur power plant idle for the last two months. “Nepra had given decisions on all applications regarding the plant’s tariff, but why the Ministry of Water and Power is not notifying it? Whether the government is planning to go to the court of law against the NEPRA’s decisions,” he asked. 

An official of the NTDC told The News that on the direction of the government, the Chinese contractor company of the plant was not penalised. Despite passage of more than a year of its commissioning/commercial operation date (COD), it did not generate with full capacity. Due to underutilisation, the national exchequer suffered losses of billions of rupees. For underutilisation of power plants and conducting deliberate power outages, Nepra asked the NTDC and the ministry to submit reply.