ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority has painted a dismal picture of the performance of all power companies operating in the public and private sectors that failed not only to meet generation, transmission and distribution standards but also sent wrong bills to consumers.

In its annual report for 2014-15, the regulator has also brought to light facts that indicate orchestrated electricity shortfalls and loadshedding as plants were kept closed and unlicensed plants were kept in operation.

Nepra reported that its special teams visited consumers of various distribution companies and found that time-of-use meters of 70 per cent consumers were outdated and out-timed, due to which some consumers were billed at off-peak rates and some at peak rates.

Take a look: Nepra to promote power generation by consumers

An official said that in some cases complaints about peak charging were not settled for more than six months to show better recovery to meet government instructions and targets.

The special teams found 11KV metering rooms in miserable conditions with no protection system. Lines and poles were found in poor condition, one of the reasons for an increased number of interruptions, resulting in non-achievement of reliability standards.

Moreover, the connected load of most domestic, commercial and industrial B-2 consumers was more than sanctioned for them. But no action in the form of issuing notices or extending the load has been taken by distribution companies. Transformers are running 80 to 100pc overloaded because of which frequent tripping was occurring.

The Nepra teams observed that during 2014-15, generating units were not utilised according to their capacities. For example, units 1-3 of Muzaffargarh, having 31pc cent efficiency were providing a net capacity factor of less than 49pc while units 4 to 6, having 28 to 32pc efficiency, were extending a net capacity factor of 31 to 34pc only.

Likewise, units 5-9 with efficiency of 38pc were operating at net capacity factor of 34.7pc, while Power Station, Faisalabad, having 24pc efficiency was operating at net capacity factor of 3pc and 6.9pc.

It was observed that Thermal Power Station, Multan Cantt, Natural Gas Power Station, Multan and GTPS, Shahdara, have been deleted from licence of Genco-III, but “these plants are retained since long without any contribution to the national grid”.

Nepra has sent an advisory to the ministry of water and power, advising it that either these power plants (excluding TPS, Muzaffargarh, and Nandipur) be declared abandoned and disposed of or other policy decision, whichever deemed appropriate by the government, may be made.

By reviewing the data regarding forced outages submitted by Genco-III, it was observed that the units/machines were shut down over a period of three years which shows that operation and maintenance activities are not being carried out properly by Genco-III, causing sudden tripping and loss of power generation. Genco-III needs to maintain its substation and equipment and machinery in proper form to avoid frequent forced shutdown.

As part of monitoring activities it was noted that various units of Genco-II have been on forced outage for more than two years because of lack of preventive maintenance of plant and equipment. It was observed that during June this year, only 41pc capacity of Genco-II was being utilised.

An advisory on declining performance of Genco-II was sent to the water and power secretary to fix responsibility about underutilisation of Genco’s units since long and accordingly proceedings against those found responsible may be initiated.

A letter regarding minimum generation from Jinnah Hydropower Plant was sent to the Wapda chairman to conduct an inquiry about delayed commercial operation and repeated technical problems related to the plant.

The regulator put on record that the NTDC and K-Electric had been violating the upper and lower voltage and frequency limits under normal and contingency conditions. This could adversely affect the system’s performance and lead to instability and cascaded outages. It showed that no proper utilisation of operation and maintenance funds had been carried out by the NTDC and KE to maintain and upgrade lines and grids.

The standards required reporting frequency variations going beyond five minutes, but both the NTDC and KE were indicating measurement interval of 15 minutes.

Published in Dawn, September 29th , 2015

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