Power demand has crashed, Nepra hearing told

The electricity demand has officially crashed and it would more than nullify a nominal decline in fuel cost next month through a subsequent higher increase in quarterly tariff adjustment, apparently due to induction of 21,000MW of generation capacity in last six years — equal to preceding 70 years since 1947. This was the crux of a public hearing called by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), presided over by its chairman Waseem Mukhtar, on Thursday. Three provincial members — Mathar Niaz Rana, Maqsood Anwar Khan and Rafique Shaikh — also attended the meeting. This coincided with a decision by the regulator to allow the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) to prepare a Rs352 billion three-year investment plan (FY23 to FY2024-25) for removal of critical constraints, mostly between generation centres in the country’s south and load centres in the north.