The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday suspended notices issued by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) to four Independent Power Producers (IPPs) over allegations of excessive profits.
The four IPPs include Liberty Power Tech Limited, Atlas Power Limited, Attock Gen Limited and Nishat Power Limited.
The IPPs challenged the notices pleading that the IPPs were established under the Policy for Power Generation Projects, 2002. They said they had an implementation agreement with the government and Power Purchase Agreement with National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) to this end and that NEPRA’s notices were illegal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn3tMCvpLPE&t=16s
Nishat Power Limited said that ‘under the provision of agreements with the government and NTDC, IPPs were issued sovereign guarantees, assuring their demands of capacity prices based on tariffs determined by NEPRA under the NEPRA Act 1997’.
It was further said that since the government failed to pay the IPPs' capacity demand, the sovereign guarantees were invoked and arbitration proceedings were initiated.
“The suo moto notice issued by NEPRA is not covered under the provisions of the NEPRA Act 1997 or any substantive law and is considered by IPPs to be an illegal and adverse tactic to renegotiate tariffs which have already been finalized,” the Nishat Group added.
The four IPPs also urged the court to suspend the challenged notices, but the notices were suspended till the next case hearing.
The four IPPs include Liberty Power Tech Limited, Atlas Power Limited, Attock Gen Limited and Nishat Power Limited.
The IPPs challenged the notices pleading that the IPPs were established under the Policy for Power Generation Projects, 2002. They said they had an implementation agreement with the government and Power Purchase Agreement with National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) to this end and that NEPRA’s notices were illegal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn3tMCvpLPE&t=16s
Nishat Power Limited said that ‘under the provision of agreements with the government and NTDC, IPPs were issued sovereign guarantees, assuring their demands of capacity prices based on tariffs determined by NEPRA under the NEPRA Act 1997’.
It was further said that since the government failed to pay the IPPs' capacity demand, the sovereign guarantees were invoked and arbitration proceedings were initiated.
“The suo moto notice issued by NEPRA is not covered under the provisions of the NEPRA Act 1997 or any substantive law and is considered by IPPs to be an illegal and adverse tactic to renegotiate tariffs which have already been finalized,” the Nishat Group added.
The four IPPs also urged the court to suspend the challenged notices, but the notices were suspended till the next case hearing.