PAKISTAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Nadir Altaf and Muhammad Fahim Khan, RIAA Barker Gillette
There are a number of precedents in which the relevant government agency has approved the transfer of project company ownership/control, including: • Rousch (Pakistan) Power; • Laraib Energy; and • Star Hydro Power (Patrind). Uch Power (Private) Limited and Uch-II Power (Private) Limited are in the process of being acquired by Sapphire Fibres Limited and Mind- bridge (Private) Limited. 1.5 Central Planning Authorities In addition to being the national grid company, the NTDC is also responsible for the develop- ment of power generation and transmission in Pakistan. In this role, the NTDC has prepared the Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan 2021–30 (IGCEP), which sets out the gen- eration expansion plan for the decade. Based upon the IGCEP, the NTDC has also formulated a Transmission System Expansion Plan, which is awaiting approval. As previously mentioned, the ISMO is responsi- ble for the control and dispatch of electric power to meet the demand of the national grid (see 1.2 Principal State-Owned or Investor-Owned Enti- ties ). In addition to the foregoing, the investment and expansion plans of distribution licensees and transmission licensees – and their performance and safety in light thereof – are reviewed and approved by NEPRA annually, along with the revenue requirements. Aside from the ISMO, the following stakeholders also play a role in planning:
• the CCI and the Cabinet Committee on Energy; • policy-making institutions, including the fed- eral and provincial cabinets; • NEPRA; • the Ministry of Planning; and • the Ministry of Energy (power and petroleum divisions).
The foregoing list is not exhaustive. 1.6 Recent Changes in Law or Regulation
In 2018, the NEPRA Act was amended to, inter alia, pave the way for a deregulated, competitive market, referred to as the Competitive Trading Bilateral Contract Market (CTBCM) model. In addition to the generation, transmission and distribution licences already provided by the original law, the 2018 Amendment Act intro- duced new licences for: • market operators – responsible for the opera- tion of the competitive market to be estab- lished under the CTBCM model; • the system operator – responsible for the dispatch of the electric power generators connected to the national grid system; • PGCs – responsible for the provision of trans- mission services within each province; • electric power traders – act as demand- aggregators in the CTBCM model by con- tracting with multiple distribution licensees and consumers to procure power on their collective behalf; and • electric power suppliers – depending upon the nature of the licence granted to electric power suppliers, they will be entitled to make sales of electricity directly to a consumer (for example, a competitive electric supplier will be able to make sales of power (ie, “supply”)
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