Probe into Karachi power crisis begins

KARACHI: The investigation process into rampant power crisis in Karachi has started. It will be determined on SHC orders if K-Electric has fulfilled its investment terms or not. It will also be determined if the reason for the current loadshedding schedule is the result of output or transmission constraints.

A National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) team has reached Karachi to investigate the current wave of power crisis. The team also visited K-Electric’s head office and met people at top posts. According to sources, the Nepra team also visited the Bin Qasim Power Plant and various other installations on Friday.

The Nepra team is visiting Karachi to determine the reasons behind the power crisis and frequent power breakdowns on the orders of the Sindh High Court. It is important to note that Nepra has imposed fines on K-Electric in the past.

Reportedly, most of the huge power breakdowns happened due to the closure of Bin Qasim Power Plant. On the other hand, the representatives of K-Electric’s customers have also asserted that K-Electric doesn’t run the Bin Qasim Power Plant and various other power units at full capacity due to which people of Karachi had to face power loadshedding.

On May 24, SHC's Justice Irfan Saadat Khan, heading the bench, had come down hard on the city's sole power utility, saying they would not sit idle while unannounced loadshedding continued to cause distress to residents.

On Tuesday, the Sindh High Court (SHC) ordered the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) to take action against K-Electric with regard to unannounced loadshedding.

The two-member bench, headed by Justice Irfan Saadat Khan, also ordered Nepra to take all legal actions against K-Electric, adding that the city’s sole power utility should also follow Nepra’s orders.

The SHC bench had reserved its verdict after proceedings on a petition filed by social activist Karamat Ali on unannounced loadshedding by the power utility. Jamaat-e-Islami Karachi chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman had also filed an application for becoming an intervener in the petition, and demanded that the government nationalise the KE again.

On Monday, the petitioner's lawyer, Faisal Siddiqui, said an entire area should not be deprived of electricity if one person defaults on paying the bills. He added that even if it was the matter of theft, the person committing the crime shouldbear the brunt of the power cuts, not those in the adjoining houses.

On January 22, 2016, Nepra had made area-wise loadshedding illegal yet loadshedding was going on in the port city.  In 2014, the Supreme Court of Pakistan had ordered the power utility not to cut-off power supply during Ramazan, the lawyer maintained. But regardless, 80pc of the areas in Karachi were in the dark during Sehri on the first day of Ramazan this year.

Nepra had earlier informed the court that the KE continued to underutilise its own generation capacity and draw power (650MW) from the National Transmission & Despatch Company (NTDC) despite the expiry of the power purchase agreement.