LAHORE: The Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco) has constituted two committees to review policies of the power distribution companies (Discos) on various subjects to make them uniform in line with rules and regulations of the Ministry of Water and Power.

The move was made in a conference of the Discos’ chief executive officers (CEOs) presided over by the Pepco managing director at Wapda House on Monday.

The CEOs of the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (Iesco), Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco), Gujranwala Electric Power Company (Gepco) Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (Fesco), Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco), Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco), Multan Electric Power Company (Mepco), Quetta Electric Supply Company (Qesco) and Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) and the officials of Pepco, Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) and the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) attended the meeting.

At present, most of the Discos’ policies on procurement, medical, training and development, human resource development, transport, recruitment etc are not aligned with Pepco’s set-up, causing various issues for the ministry.

“Discos’ policies are neither similar to each other nor aligned with Pepco that came into being in 2007 after bifurcation of the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) into two entities. Since the existing polices of Discos are either approved by their board of directors (BoDs) or being followed under Wapda rules and regulations, they are liable to be reviewed and aligned with Pepco—their supervisory authority,” a senior official who participated in the CEOs conference, told Dawn.

“There are a lot of problems Pepco was facing due to the current situation. That is why the two committees were constituted to study policies on all subjects of all Discos one by one and align them with Pepco,” the official added.

He said the need for such a step was felt after the CEOs of various Discos got approved their policies on recruitment, transport, procurement etc from their BoDs and took various decisions without taking the Pepco administration into confidence. And whenever the CEOs were inquired about it, they said they took the steps under the policies approved by the BoDs, he said.

The official added that a seminar was also held after the meeting where the CEOs of various Discos gave presentations on safety, strategic business plan and energy conservation. A senior official representing the K-Electric especially attended seminar to share his company’s experience in strategic business plans.

The CEOs of other Discos were also requested to share their safety, business and energy conservation plans with Pepco. “It has been also decided to hold the CEOs conference six times in a year so as to review performance, targets and plans of all the Discos and issue recommendations for implementation,” the official concluded.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2017