Management of electricity crisis: first policy dialogue on role of provinces on January 25

The first policy dialogue on the role of provinces in the "management of electricity crisis by provinces" with special reference to post 18th amendment scenario will be initiated on January 25 at a local hotel. The event is being organised by Consumer Rights Commission of Pakistan (CRPC), a national non-profit research and advocacy organisation which is actively engaged in a variety of areas including energy and electricity.
CRCP under its Electricity Governance Initiative (EGI-Pak) is striving to engage in a meaningful dialogue with planners, policy makers, regulators and all the concerned stakeholders. The central piece of this initiative is the "EGI Assessment toolkit" which comprises research questions to assess transparency, accountability, capacity and public participation in electricity policy and regulatory processes in different countries.
The EGI-Pak aims at assessing the extent, to which decision making processes in electricity sector are transparent, allow for public participation, remain accountable to the public interest and permit redress to access. Based on the evidence generated during the implementation of EGI toolkit-Pak, CRPC is holding a series of policy dialogue with the parliamentarians, planners' regulators, service providers and civil society organisations at provincial and federal level.
According to CRCP, the current electricity crisis in the country clearly established that routine technocratic solutions are not enough to deal with this crippling catastrophe and calls for active engagement with the policy makers and regulators for adequate, cheap and uninterrupted supply of electricity in Pakistan.
While Federal Government was still grappling with power crisis employing solutions like rental power plants, new hydel plants, 18th amendment was approved which abolished concurrent list, keeping only a federal legislative list, with residuary powers resting with provinces. However, electricity was shifted to federal legislative list.
Interestingly, Article 157 and control of Council of Common interests over institutions dealing with electricity was maintained. Thus provincial legislative powers under the concurrent legislative list were removed but administrative powers of provinces remained intact by virtue of Article 157 of the constitution.
CRCP believes that most economists agree that basic services are better provided by governments that are closer to their intended beneficiaries. The decentralisation of government's authority should help in addressing the problem the country faces as the number of people living in absolute poverty increases.
Under the current scenario, the provincial governments are now equally responsible to ensure steady electricity supply to their people, and in this regard, CRCP policy brief on management of electricity crisis by provinces, suggests that all provincial governments need to take the following steps:
(a) Improved overall governance in electricity sector:
i. Provincial governments equally need to improve governance in power sector by adopting principles of transparency, accountability and disclosure of policies and performance to general public at policy formulation and planning stages.
ii. Under clause 157 of the 18th amendment, provinces have been empowered to set up power plants of any capacity and to determine the tariff for distribution of electricity within the province. In case of a dispute between the federal and provincial governments, the matter is to be resolved by the Council of Common Interest (CCI). It is now responsibility of the provinces to devise concrete provincial power/electricity policies that incorporate elements of transparency, accountability and wider and effective public participation in all the decision making processes.
iii. Take account of plans relating to various sectors of energy and develop holistic plans and policies for development at provincial level.
iv. Strengthen the relevant provincial authorities like provincial power departments and provincial environmental protection agencies, with relevant technical experts, to ensure smooth and transparent processing of the projects.
v. Formulate and adopt regulation for use of energy efficient technologies particularly in the provincial government offices.
vi. Give priority to electricity sector and setting sufficient budget for it, and
vii. Energy security is as important to the country as its national security, calling for an urgent adoption of an energy security plan for implementation with short-term and long-term measures through Council of Common Interests. Provinces need to ensure that such a plan is adopted without further delay.
(b) Improved transparency and public participation:
i. Provinces need to devise mechanisms for effective dialogue between the distribution companies and the consumers of their provinces to ensure that consumer grievances are redressed in an effective and efficient manner.
ii. Develop and adopt guidelines for public participation at provincial level, and
iii. Devise mechanisms for improvement in transparency through proper publicly available tracking of power losses and cash flow in the system.
(c) Improved performance:
i. All provinces shall take up the responsibility to provide adequate law enforcement support against electricity theft.
ii. Payment of electricity dues is the duty of each consumer of electricity. Provinces shall set up an example for their own people, thus where provincial budgets do not allow electricity expenses beyond a certain threshold, all such expenses shall be disallowed, thus leading to rationing of electricity and adoption of conservation of electricity strategies within the provincial government, in particular and in general public arena.
(d) Relations with federal entities:
i. Provinces shall enhance their role in power sector regulation through Nepra (National Electric Power Regulatory Authority), as they have equal representation there. Furthermore, the provincial offices of electric inspectors though appointed by the provincial governments are also managed under the Nepra Act. Therefore, provinces need to ensure safety of power supplies and handling of consumer complaints against distribution companies through active engagement with Nepra.
ii. Efforts shall be made to acquire services of federal government entities like Alternate Energy Development Board and Private Power Infra-structure Board for managing and administering projects within the provinces, for which procedures shall be adopted to streamline these administrative arrangements.