NEPRA imposes Rs25 million fine on LESCO

The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has imposed a fine of Rs25 million on the Lahore Electric Supply Company (LESCO) for failing to reduce transmission and distribution losses and improve recovery during the fiscal year 2023–24, ARY News reported.

In its decision, NEPRA ordered LESCO to pay the fine within 15 days, citing serious inefficiencies and non-compliance with performance targets.

According to the regulator, LESCO’s system losses increased by 4.04%, reaching 15.92% during the fiscal year and causing an estimated Rs47.6 billion loss to the national exchequer.

NEPRA stated that it had issued a show-cause notice to LESCO after identifying these discrepancies, but the company failed to provide satisfactory evidence or justification for its poor performance.

The authority further noted that, despite repeated instructions to curb line losses and improve recovery, LESCO continued to underperform, placing a significant financial strain on the power sector.

Similarly, NEPRA imposed a Rs25 million fine on K-Electric (KE) for operational failures during the nationwide power outage in January 2023.

Following a detailed inquiry, NEPRA directed KE to deposit the fine within 15 days, concluding that the company was responsible for deficiencies within its own system. KE’s explanations were deemed unsatisfactory and unacceptable.

The regulator stated that K-Electric failed to adequately justify internal faults and operational lapses, and could not shift the entire blame onto the National Grid.

NEPRA also criticized KE’s ineffective Black Start capability—a key system meant to independently restore power generation during a nationwide blackout. Despite prior testing, the system failed during the actual emergency.

“Technical flaws in KE’s Black Start plants remained unresolved, and repeated trippings during the blackout exposed the weakness of existing safety mechanisms,” the authority added.