ISLAMABAD: Signing of the Planning & Monitoring Agreement between Power Planning and Monitoring Company (PPMC) and all power distribution, generation companies (DISCOs & GENCOs) and National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) is scheduled on 22-12-2021 in the Power Division.
According to sources, following the government decision regarding restructuring of PEPCO, power division has required from all board of directors of DISCOs, GENCOs and NTDC to comply with the Planning and Monitoring Agreement alongwith authorizing the respective Chief executive officer (CEO)/Managing Director (MD) to sign the same on behalf of the power sector entity.
And, signing of the Planning & Monitoring Agreement between Power Planning and Monitoring Company (PPMC) and all power distribution, generation companies (DISCOs & GENCOs) and National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) is scheduled on 22-12-2021 in the committee room of the Power Division.
As per details, the government has so far approved that the name of Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) would be changed to PPMC and the PPMC would continue to charge a fee to DISCOs, GENCOs and NTDC as determined by the board from time to time. Similarly, PPMC and all power sector entities will enter into a Monitoring and Planning Agreement.
Power Division’s Deputy Secretary (DISCOs), Akbar Azam Rajar, in a letter to the chairman Board of Directors (BoDs) of all DISCOs, GENCOs and NTDC and CEOs of all DISCOs said that dynamics of power sector requiring dedicated institutional capacity for providing support to the government in development of policies, strategic plans, frameworks, cross-sectoral & cross value chain integration, performance monitoring & reporting on strategic initiatives.
Similarly, the development, implementation and monitoring of the national electric plan requires dedicated institutional capacity. Accordingly, PPMC (ex-PEPCO) has been designated to perform this function, said power division
Reportedly, the Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) during the month of October this year (2021) had approved a summary on restructuring of Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) submitted by the Power Division.
The CCoE decided that an approved draft of Planning and Monitoring Agreement should be signed between the PPMC and all the power sector entities while the PPMC would be given a sovereign mandate to approach international lending agencies through the Economic Affairs Division to secure support for capacity building, consultancy, tools and infrastructure to effectively operationalise the core functions.
It is pertinent to mention that reportedly PEPCO was created in 1998 following the approval of a strategic plan for restructuring of the Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) by the Council of Common Interests (CCI) in 1993.
The plan had envisaged water sector responsibilities under WAPDA and the separation of power sector activities from WAPDA and transfer to PEPCO to operationalise 10 DISCOs, three GENCOs and the NTDC.
PEPCO was entrusted through an executive order in October 1998 to facilitate the transition from a centralised control over the power sector supply chain to autonomous and independent entities.
Later, the federal cabinet in October 2011 decided to dissolve PEPCO and create a new entity — Central Power Purchase Agency (CPPA) — as its successor, along with teams of professionals and board of directors of corporate entities to ensure 100 percent recovery of monthly bills. However, many of the targets remained unfulfilled even though the CPPA was operationalised in 2015.
The CPPA’s functions remained limited to power procurement on behalf of DISCOs and Karachi Electric and facilitation of the power market transition from the current single buyer to a competitive market.
The other functions of PEPCO could not be transferred to the CPPA because these were beyond the mandate of the latter and PEPCO continued its role as a central entity to assist the power division in providing support to DISCOs and allied functions.
