ISLAMABAD : National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has sought action against officials involved in causing avoidable delay in filing COD of Nandipur despite clear instructions from the Regulator.
In a letter to Secretary Power, Registrar NEPRA, Waseem Bhinder has cited reference to the NPGCL-CCP request for adjustment of relevant tariff components of reference generation tariff 2015 and 2017 at COD, and subsequent interim request of February 21, 2024.
The Authority while considering the request observed that the COD on RFO was
achieved in 2015 whereas the COD on gas was achieved in 2017 but despite clear directions from the Authority to submit the true-up adjustment request at COD, the Company submitted the adjustment request in January 2024 causing a delay of approximately 7-9 years.
According to NEPRA, the inbuilt mechanism of reference generation tariff provides the adjustment on account of exchange rate variation, KIBOR/LIBOR variations and other parameters which are in line with the GOP policy.
During the aforementioned period, due to the non-filing of COD request, the adjustment
on account of O&M and fuel was granted to the Company whereas the debt and RoE was claimed from CPPA-G on reference generation tariff.
” Now, after a plausible delay of 7-9 years, the company has requested interim relief from 2015 to April 2024 on account of RoE, debt servicing and cost of working capital, depicting the reasons of exchange rate variations and KIBOR variations, ” Registrar said adding that the Authority considers that the inefficiency of the management at NPGCL Nandipur power project in delaying the interim request has resulted in a balloon payment of Rs. 16 billion (approx.) which has also affected the financial stream of the Company.
This accumulative amount of Rs. 16 billion (approx.) will also have impact on the
end-consumers tariff if passed on in the quarterly adjustments to the Discos in one quarter which is approximately Rs. 0.70/kwh-Rs 1/kwh.
The Authority considers that the GoP is making efforts to minimize the impact of electricity cost to address the public concerns over high electricity bills in the country. However, delays by the public sector GENCOs, which are owned by the GoP, may hamper the sincere efforts made by the Government for providing the relief to the end-consumers.
In view of the above, the Authority is of the view that it appropriate to bring this matter to Power Division’s notice to take the appropriate action against those officers officials who have been involved in causing this avoidable delay for filing the COD, request despite clear instructions from the regulator. Ends
