According to the draft Electricity Act, a person may construct, maintain or operate a captive generating plant and dedicated transmission facilities in the area licensed to the individual by the Authority provided supply of electricity from the captive generating plant through the grid shall be regulated by the Grid Code.
Well informed sources told Business Recorder that the draft of Electricity Act 2015 has been shared with provinces and other stakeholders prior to submission to the Federal Cabinet.
The duties of the generating company will be to establish, operate and maintain generating stations, tie-lines, sub stations and dedicated transmission facilities.
The federal government will establish at national level the National Load Despatch Centre for optimum scheduling and despatch of electricity. Presently, National Power Control Centre is performing this function.
The National Load Despatch Centre will comply with such principles, guidelines and methodologies in respect of the wheeling and optimum scheduling and despatch of electricity as the Authority may specify in the grid code. The Centre will exercise supervision and control over the inter-provincial transmission system.
The provincial government and provincial regulatory authority will facilitate and promote transmission, wheeling and inter-connection arrangements within its territorial jurisdiction for the transmission and supply of electricity by economical and efficient utilisation of the electricity. The provincial government will establish a centre to be known as the province load management despatch centre for the purpose of exercising the powers and discharging the functions.
The provincial despatch load centre may levy and collect such fee and charges from the generating companies and licences engaged in intra-provincial transmission of electricity as may be specified by the provincial government and the provincial regulatory authority.
Distribution of Electricity: It will be the duty of distribution licencee to develop and maintain an efficient, co-ordinated and economical distribution facilities' in his area of supply in accordance with the provisions contained in the Act.
Anything contained in any other law, the Authority may issue such directions as it considers appropriate to a licencee or a generating company if such licencee or generating company enters into any agreement or abuses its dominant position or enters into combination which is likely to cause an adverse effect on competition in electricity industry.
A generating company may supply electricity to any licencee or consumer in accordance with the Act and the rules and regulations there under. The Ministry of Water and Power will, from time to time, in consultation with provinces, review or revise, the National Electricity Policy and tariff policy.
In February 2015, the officials of Ministry of Water and Power informed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that amendments to Penal Code 1860 and the Code of Criminal Procedures 1898 have been promulgated through Presidential ordinance. Currently, the Bill stands at the Senate Committee after the clearance of the National Assembly. The government was expecting that the Bill will be enacted by end-March, 2015. However, the Bill has not been approved by the Senate Committee so far.
The government informed the IMF that in parallel, it has drafted the new Electricity Act to modernise governance of the sector and has circulated it to provinces for comments. The draft Act will be finalised and submitted to the Council of Common Interests (CCI) by end-February 2015 but this has also not materialised so far.
Ministry of water and Power will work with the Ministry of Law on creating an effective system for handling cases related to electricity theft that can be effective by June 2015.