DISCOS, K-Electric contributed losses of Rs123 billion: NEPRA annual report 2018-19.

ISLAMABAD -- The power distribution companies (DISCOS) and the K-Electric collectively contributed losses of around Rs45 billion 'due to inefficiency, and transmission and distribution (T and D) losses, and Rs78 billion due to less recovery of bills for the year 2018-19, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has revealed in its annual Performance Evaluation Report.

The report further outlined that 152 fatal accidents had occurred due to violation of prescribed safety standards by the power distribution companies in the same period.

The regulatory body analysed the annual performance reports from all distribution companies and approved a Performance Evaluation Report, and uploaded on the website of NEPRA.

The report observed that a detailed study was also carried out to determine the circumstances and total number of fatal accidents occurring in DISCOs and K-Electric during the last seven years which revealed that 1169 fatal accidents occurred from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2018.

The report also observed province-wise installed capacity of power generation plants as 16,773.6 MW or 51.53 percent in Punjab, 7,530 MW or 19.44 percent in Sindh, 5,855.4 MW or 14.84 percent in KP, 3,766 MW or 7.52 percent in Balochistan, and 1999 MW or 6.66 percent in AJK.

Power sector 1423 related to cases pending before the courts as of June 30, 2019.

It stated, 'the complaints received by the Authority mainly relate to excessive and detection billing, delay in provision of connections and in replacement of defective meters, low voltage problem, slow augmentation of transformers, non-receipt of electricity bills, delay in replacement of damaged transformers, and excessive load shedding etc.'

The report mentioned about the Power Outage Complaint Application, and observed that it was under progress to monitor the access of reliable electricity services to the general public, especially in rural areas. 'By using this App any citizen can submit a complaint about unscheduled power outage. The complaint will be routed to the concerned Distribution Company with resolution deadline as per NEPRA Performance Standards Rules.'

The report further outlined that the online complaint management system was launched for General Public on 27 September, 2018. 'During the financial year 2018-19, 831 complaints are received online and resolved/disposed by the Consumer Affairs Officers at Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta.'

Moreover, the NEPRA report pointed out...