ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Power has directed the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) to submit the last five years’ balance sheets of power plants to assess their return on investment (ROI), following revelations that some projects are earning returns as high as 100 percent.
The committee, chaired by Senator Mohsin Aziz, met at the Parliament House on Monday to review various energy sector issues, including hydropower projects in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), electricity tariffs, and the Net Hydel Profit (NHP) payments to provinces.
The session extensively discussed the 207 MW Madyan and 88 MW Gabral hydropower projects. The Special Assistant to the KP Chief Minister on Energy said that land worth Rs. 5 billion had been purchased and progress had been made on the projects, but they were removed from the Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan (IGCEP) by the federal government.
Federal Minister for Power, Awais Ahmad Leghari, countered that KP authorities had misrepresented the CCI-approved power policy by citing selective clauses. He warned that including such projects could raise electricity prices by Rs. 6 per unit by 2034. He noted that the Power Division had dropped 8,000–10,000 MW of projects — including several under CPEC — from the IGCEP to shield consumers from expensive electricity.
Leghari informed the committee that agreements with five independent power producers (IPPs) had been terminated and others renegotiated, leading to projected savings of Rs. 3.4 trillion over four to five years. This fiscal year alone, DISCO losses have been reduced by Rs. 191 billion.
On the issue of NHP, NEPRA officials said payments were being made to provinces, but KP representatives argued that the amounts were too low and arrears were increasing. The committee recommended NEPRA clear the backlog and pay at least Rs. 5 billion per month to the KP government.
Addressing wheeling charges, the minister said that NEPRA rules had been amended, replacing the Rs. 28 standard rate with a Rs. 12 base rate, pending final approval from the regulator.
The committee also discussed captive power plants, imported coal and LNG projects, and tariff structures for protected consumers. Senator Mohsin Aziz urged the federal and provincial governments to revisit the exclusion of KP hydropower projects from the IGCEP, while recommending multiple slab rates to avoid steep tariff hikes for consumers.
NEPRA will present the five-year balance sheets of power plants in the next meeting for detailed ROI analysis.
