The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has ordered K-Electric to immediately stop unannounced and excessive load shedding in Karachi, ruling that entire feeders cannot be subjected to power cuts because of electricity theft or non-payment by some consumers.
The regulator found that K-Electric had been applying an aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) loss-based policy that has no legal recognition and resulted in paying customers being deprived of electricity because of losses attributed to other consumers on the same feeder.
The latest order follows growing complaints raised during Nepra’s monthly fuel price adjustment hearings and comes despite an earlier Rs50 million penalty imposed on K-Electric over similar violations.
Nepra examined outage data from 620 feeders serving nearly 2.37 million consumers and found widespread instances in which actual load shedding exceeded even the schedules declared by the utility.
The most severe disruption was recorded on very-high-loss feeders, which serve approximately 1.18 million consumers. These experienced average daily outages of 12 hours and 14 minutes despite K-Electric’s own maximum schedule of 10 hours. More than 91% of these feeders exceeded that limit.
High-loss feeders recorded average outages of 10 hours and 39 minutes, with 81.9% exceeding the 10-hour threshold. Among medium-loss feeders, 68.4% experienced outages of six hours or more, breaching the applicable six-hour limit.
Nepra said electricity supply could legally be curtailed because of technical constraints, system emergencies, generation shortages or transmission-related problems. Revenue recovery, commercial losses and electricity theft, however, do not constitute lawful grounds for load shedding, the regulator said.
K-Electric has consequently been directed to discontinue feeder-level outages based on AT&C losses and ensure that customers who pay their bills are not punished for theft or defaults by others.
Instead, Nepra instructed the utility to pursue individual defaulters and electricity thieves through targeted disconnections and stronger anti-theft enforcement.
The regulator also ordered K-Electric to expand the installation of aerial bundled cables in high-loss areas, which can make illegal connections more difficult.
K-Electric must submit a time-bound plan for installing the cables within 30 days, along with a comprehensive report detailing its compliance with Nepra’s directives.