Nepra annoyed at NAB?s questioning power tariff
 

ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has expressed concern and annoyance over the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) questioning power tariff determinations what the regulator had made in last several years and added that it discouraging the professionals to take decisions.“Almost all the projects on which Nepra had made determinations in the past have been questioned by NAB, and the way the investigations are being conducted, it has completely stifled the morale of Nepra professionals,” the regulator said in its report titled ‘state of industry report 2018’ that it released on Thursday.It further says, “The matter in essence has come to the jurisdiction of Nepra and the boundaries beyond which NAB may not intervene. A holistic approach is the need of the hour so that confidence of the sector in general and that of Nepra in particular is not unduly hurt.” The power regulator also said that it has decided not to renew the licences of the public sector power generation companies (Gencos) having worst efficiency levels. Gencos have inferior power generation efficiencies and adding costly energy to the grid.Import of power from Central Asian States (CASA project) is not expected to lower the cost of energy mix while its energy supply may not be attractive for the system due to seasonality in the availability of power.The project requires NTDC to construct 100km Transmission Line from the Pak-Afghan Boarder to Peshawar and a 1,300MW convertor station at Peshawar. Roughly, the present tariff will be Rupees 15/kWh, which will increase after the addition of transmission and distribution losses for the end-consumer. Therefore, the regulator observes that this will not be a cheap solution, as it will not help lower the overall energy mix cost of the country. Further, it may also be noted that the energy will not be available during the winter when there is acute shortage of fuel and hydro energy in the country is also at the minimum level.The federal government may consider revisiting the agreements in view of the higher tariffs and other requirements for constructing transmission network.It also pinpointed that the ex-Wapda Discos could not reduce their overall T&D losses, as the results over past five years show that their losses increased in the FY 2017-18 relative to the earlier years. Similar performance has been noted in the area of overall revenue recovery of Discos. The recovery ratio in FY 2017-18 has deteriorated compared to previous years.Circular debt continued to accumulate to around Rs1,000 billion due to inefficiencies of Gencos, Discos’ inability to achieve targets for T&D losses and recovery ratios as allowed by Nepra and other governance issues like delay in tariff notification. Continuation of centralised control of Discos and public sector Gencos has been noted as one of the main reasons, for not only the substandard performance of these entities, but also a major factor for accumulation of the Circular debt.The regulator said that the government is exploring the option of privatisation of XW-Discos to encourage private investment, making them financially self-sufficient which will reduce the burden on national exchequer.http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/com/cwEr/~4/wzYDqglL4Hs

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