The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) on Tuesday granted the market operator licence under Competitive Trading Bilateral Contract Market (CTBCM) to the Central Power Purchasing Agency (Guarantee) Limited (the CPPA-G).
According to a NEPRA press release, the market operator would be responsible to administer its operations, standards of practice and business conduct of market participants in accordance with the market commercial code approved by the authority.
It said the commencement of the CTBCM under the amended NEPRA Act of 2018 was one of the landmark achievements for the power sector of Pakistan. The introduction of CTBCM, i.e. wholesale electricity market was originally conceptualized under the WAPDA Strategic Plan prepared in 1992 for unbundling of the power sector. However, the idea did not turn into reality until NEPRA approved CTBCM in December 2019 (High-Level Design) and November 2020 (Detailed Design).
Under the approved CTBCM implementation roadmap, the relevant regulations were approved and notified within due timelines of 18 months. Further, all the critical actions, including deployment of IT system, operationalization of market departments (MIRAD) in the distribution companies etc. were also completed within the record 18 months.
The CTBCM would tremendously improve the governance of the power sector through institutional reforms, improved procurement and payment discipline, utilization of merchant generators without take-or-pay contracts, bilateral contracting by DISCOs based on demand forecasts and capacity obligations gradually moving away from sovereign guarantees.—TLTP
