February 28, 2020: The first National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) Energy Week 2020 on Friday concluded with a resolve to ensure provision of affordable electricity to the consumers, eliminating inefficiencies in the system, introduction of competition through supplier regime, wheeling and net metering arrangements.
Addressing at the concluding session Member National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) Rafique Ahmed Sheikh said the overall financial health of the power sector greatly depended on efficient distribution.
He said the distribution sector was the last step in the supply chain of electricity.
Rafique Sheikh highlighted the issues and challenges of high distribution losses, low recovery, distribution system constraints, inefficient service provision, low outreach to the new clusters of consumers and lackluster expansion of networks. He said the financial mismanagement still plagued the distribution sector.
The distribution session was attended by representatives of various power utilities and organizations/institutions such as DISCOs, World Bank, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), FPCCI, APTMA, CPPA-G, PPIB, NTDC, Wafaqi Mohtasib, and AEDB etcetera.
Moreover, power sector researchers and academia such as; NUST, LUMS also shared their ideas to achieve the goal of sustainable development through effectiveness and optimization of the distribution sector.
The distribution session focused on the role of DISCOs, introduction of competition through Supplier Regime and CTBCM, wheeling and net metering arrangements, reasons and way forward to eliminate circular debt.
The guest speakers highlighted the impact of higher consumer end tariffs on the economy particularly on the export sector and suggested the way forward to overcome these challenges.
Speaking on the occasion, NEPRA Chairman Tauseef H Farooqi Farooqi thanked the NEPRA management committee and team lead for organizing a fruitful event.
He said it would ultimately result in revamping the power sector of Pakistan.
He also appreciated the innovative ideas, valuable recommendations, and latest approaches shared by the National and International Energy experts and hoped to chalk-out the actionable ones.
In the end, the NEPRA chairman distributed souvenirs and certificates among the resource persons.
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