MUSHTAQ GHUMMAN

ISLAMABAD: National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has accused K-Electric and power Distribution Companies (Discos) of showing the worst ever performance in 2015-16 which is evident from volume of Transmission and Distribution (T&D) losses amounting to Rs 132 billion and phony data of losses, recovery.

According to the performance evaluation report Nepra has declared load shedding data of K-Electric, Discos 2015-16 unauthentic as compared to 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15.

Under Performance Standards (Distribution) Rules (PSDR) 2005, each distribution company is required to submit to Nepra an Annual Performance Report (APR) in the format prescribed in the PSDR 2005. The APRs for the year 2015-16, submitted by the distribution licensees, were reviewed on the basis of parameters namely transmission and distribution losses, recovery, System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI), System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI), time frame for new connection, load shedding, nominal voltage, consumer complaints, safety, and fault rate. It is noted with concern that FY 2015-16 also did not witness any major improvement in the performance of distribution companies (DISCOs and K-Electric) under the Performance Standards (Distribution) Rules (PSDR) 2005. The issue of data correctness as reported in previous Performance Evaluation Reports (PERs) remained.

Although, Nepra has already initiated strict action against such fake reporting by the distribution companies and is trying to bring them within the frame work of compliance of Performance Standards based on facts. Due to the issue of data accuracy, this year also Nepra has only considered four parameters for the performance ranking of the DISCOs & K-Electric i.e. T&D Losses, Recovery, Timeframe for new connections and safety.

According to Nepra, performance ranking is carried out based on the data submitted by the DISCOs & K-Electric and marks are awarded by considering the compliance level in respect of set standards and Nepra’s targets. Based on the results, IESCO has secured the top slot, followed by GEPCO and then MEPCO.

The main reasons for the technical losses are lengthy distribution lines, inadequate size of conductors, installation of distribution transformers away from load centres, transformer sizing & selection and bad workmanship etc. due to which these companies have failed to achieve the targets

During an analysis of the data submitted by DISCOs & K-Electric for the year 2015-16, the following major observations have been noted: (i) T&D losses and recovery: it was noted with serious concern that DISCOs and K-Electric contributed around Rs. 49 billion and Rs. 83 billion loss respectively to national exchequer in 2015-16 due to their inefficiency with respect to T&D losses and recovery targets. The reported figures of T&D losses indicate that except IESCO, none of the DISCOs could meet the regulator’s expectations. On the other hand, SEPCO has shown the worst performance among all DISCOs in this regard. As far as recovery is concerned, FESCO has achieved 100% target while IESCO, GEPCO, LESCO and MEPCO have also reported more than 99% recoveries. However, QESCO has improved its recovery from 32.6 percent to 71.6 percent in 2015- 16 as compared to 2014-15; (ii) Timeframe for new connection: While reviewing the data pertaining to the percentage of consumers who were not provided new connections in 2015-16 within the timeframe as prescribed in PSDR 2005, it was observed that IESCO and HESCO are faring better and have shown zero pendency of new connections. Further, PESCO, SEPCO and K-Electric have also provided more than 95% of applied connections in 2015-16. However, QESCO’s performance is the worst in this regard; (iii) Load Shedding-Nepra expressed serious reservations over the authenticity of data regarding load shedding being carried out by DISCOs & K-Electric in their service territories; (iv) the data provided by DISCOs & K-Electric shows that DISCOs & K-Electric shed the load from 1 to 4 hours daily which is far from ground realities. Further, it is a matter of concern that DISCOs and K-Electric are not following the order of load shedding according to different categories of consumers as provided in PSDR 2005; (v) Consumer complaints: As a regulator, Nepra carefully watches the interests of consumers therefore, DISCOs and K-Electric are being persistently advised to improve their complaint handling mechanism and provide relief to their consumers to the maximum. However, data submitted by DISCOs and K-Electric shows the contradictory situation as the reported figures of number of complaints are not based on factual positions; and (vi) Safety- It is also a matter of fact that the number of fatal accidents for employees and general public declined in 2015-16 as compared to 2014-15 due to the constant efforts of Nepra in the form of implementation of safety standards as prescribed in PSDR 2005 although the reported figure i.e. 172 fatalities is still an alarming figure and Nepra took serious actions and initiated legal proceedings.

Nepra maintained that DISCOs and K-Electric will have to realize that their workplaces are still not fully safe for employees and general public and they will have to take immediate steps to remove all safety hazards so that electrical incidents can be avoided. In spite of persistent directives and monitoring by the regulator, DISCOs and K-Electric did not show any noticeable performance in 2015-16 and continued in business as usual especially in the areas of SAIFI, SAIDI, quality of supply (voltage and frequency), Load Shedding and consumer service complaints.

On the other hand, it is a concern that the data submitted by the distribution companies is not based on reality, which was verified by the NEPRA team during visits of different DISCOs. Further, the data itself indicates surprising results which are hard to believe. For example: IESCO reported its SAIFI as 0.03, which means that an individual customer of IESCO experienced 0.03 interruptions on average during the year 2015-16 which is totally incorrect. Similarly, K-Electric submitted the figure of SAIFI as 20.52, which means that a consumer of K-Electric faced average 20 outages in 2015-16 due to KE’s own fault which is also not factually correct. Keeping in view the data constraints, NEPRA has excluded this parameter from the exercise of Performance Ranking of DISCOs and KE.