Paying your bill does not protect your house from load shedding, because outages are decided for a whole feeder or transformer, not for each household. NEPRA has said repeatedly that switching off an entire feeder because of other people's theft and unpaid bills unlawfully punishes paying consumers. In late August or early September 2026 it ordered K-Electric to stop. That order was against KE, and KE said on 14 October 2026 that scheduled cuts in high-theft areas continue, so you may still need to complain.
Why your feeder's losses decide your hours
Your house is supplied through a pole-mounted transformer (PMT), and several PMTs sit on one feeder. Companies measure each feeder's aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses: power lost in the wires plus power that is stolen or never paid for. The higher a feeder's losses, the more hours of outage it is scheduled for.
The government's stated position in 2024 was that this would continue. Energy Minister Awais Leghari said load shedding would carry on for high-loss feeders, placed in Categories 3 to 8, because supplying them would add to circular debt. Low-loss feeders in Categories 1 and 2, with losses under 20%, were meant to face outages only for technical faults. That was the 2024 position; whether the categories and hours are the same in 2026 has not been confirmed, so check your own company's current schedule.
Outside Karachi, the Power Division reportedly told the National Assembly in February 2026 that feeders with 10 or more hours of load shedding are mainly the high-loss ones, and that the remedies under way are Aerial Bundled Cable (ABC) and smart (AMI) meters, about 1.6 million of which had been installed by then. Our guide to smart meters in Pakistan explains what those meters do.
The result is that one household's punctual payment makes no difference while neighbours on the same feeder steal or default.
What NEPRA has ruled about K-Electric
The order of late August or early September 2026
NEPRA ordered K-Electric to stop unannounced, unscheduled and excessive load shedding in Karachi immediately. It also barred KE from cutting power to entire feeders on the basis of AT&C losses, because doing so unlawfully punishes consumers who pay.
NEPRA found that KE was following its own "AT&C-loss policy", which has no legal recognition, and that it was going beyond its own declared outage schedules. Under the rules NEPRA cited, supply can lawfully be curtailed only for:
- technical constraints
- system emergencies
- generation shortfalls
- transmission-related reasons
NEPRA told KE to use technological and administrative measures against theft instead of shutting down whole feeders. Business Recorder described the order as NEPRA "again" declaring the government's revenue-based load-shedding policy illegal. KE said it was reviewing the order and would reply within the deadline it had been given.
How it got here
This is not the first time NEPRA has raised the issue with KE.
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 16 August 2022 | NEPRA directed KE to shed load at PMT level rather than the whole feeder, using remote disconnection and reconnection |
| 3 April 2024 | NEPRA fined KE Rs 50 million for not complying; KE's appeal was pending |
| January 2025 | NEPRA asked KE to explain its non-compliance, then served a show-cause notice |
| 29 April 2026 | In an individual complaint, NEPRA gave KE three months to fix the complainant's area |
| Late Aug / early Sep 2026 | NEPRA issued a prohibitory order because KE kept up the practice after the Rs 50 million penalty |
KE has challenged NEPRA's earlier decision before the NEPRA Appellate Tribunal, which issued restraining orders against it. The final outcome of that appeal, and of any related court case, was not confirmed as of October 2026.
What NEPRA's own figures show
NEPRA analysed 620 KE feeders serving about 2.37 million consumers. Its findings show how far outages ran past the schedules KE itself had declared.
| Feeder type | Scheduled limit | What NEPRA found |
|---|---|---|
| Very high loss (about 1.18 million consumers) | 10 hours a day | Average 12 hours 14 minutes; 91.1% went over the limit |
| High loss | 10 hours a day | Average 10 hours 39 minutes; 81.9% went over the limit |
| Medium loss | 6 hours a day | 68.4% hit or went over the limit |
The key point for you: NEPRA's case rested on outages that exceeded declared limits. That is why keeping your own record matters.
Does the ruling stop load shedding in your area?
If you are in Karachi
Not yet, on the evidence available. From 9 to 14 October 2026 KE added temporary load management in evening and night peak hours, which it called an "extreme, last-resort measure" during a nationwide shortage of imported gas (RLNG). It said daytime supply would stay stable. On 14 October it ended that extra load management after RLNG supply returned and its BQPS-III plant stabilised.
In the same announcement, KE said scheduled load shedding continues in areas with high theft and low bill recovery, with the regular schedule on its official website. So do not assume the NEPRA order has ended loss-based cuts on your feeder. For KE accounts and bills, see K-Electric bill check online.
If you are with LESCO, IESCO, MEPCO or another DISCO
The September 2026 order was directed at K-Electric. Whether it binds the state-owned distribution companies has not been verified, so it would be wrong to say loss-based load shedding is now illegal for them. If you are unsure which company supplies you, our explainer on what a DISCO is lists all of them.
Outages were reported to have grown across the DISCOs in early October 2026, with reports putting the national shortfall above 4,000 MW. Those figures are from news reports and have not been confirmed officially.
Fault, shortage or loss-based: know which one you have
These are different problems and need different complaints.
- Fault or breakdown: a tripped feeder, burnt transformer or broken line. Report it to your company as a fault.
- Shortage-related cuts: like KE's 9 to 14 October load management, linked to generation or fuel supply. NEPRA's cited rules allow curtailment for generation shortfalls.
- Loss-based scheduled load shedding: your feeder is off for extra hours because of its theft and recovery level. This is the practice NEPRA has objected to in KE's case.
If you mix these up in a complaint, it is easier for the company to dismiss it.
What you can do as a paying consumer
There is no single official step list for this. The steps below follow how NEPRA has handled individual complaints in 2026.
- Find your feeder and its official schedule. KE publishes its schedule on its own website. For other companies, our load-shedding page shows where each one publishes its schedule. Write down the hours your feeder is meant to be off.
- Keep an outage log. For every outage, note the date, start time, end time, and whether it fell inside the published schedule. A few weeks of records showing cuts beyond the schedule is the kind of evidence NEPRA's findings were built on.
- Complain to the company first. Use the helpline or complaint portal listed on your company's own website, and keep the complaint number. Attach or quote your log, and say clearly that you are a regular payer. Our complaint letter page gives a ready-made letter in English or Urdu that you can adapt.
- Escalate to NEPRA if nothing changes. Individual consumers file load-shedding complaints against KE under Section 39 of the NEPRA Act. NEPRA's Complaints Resolution Committee decides them, and one 2026 case was heard at NEPRA's Karachi regional office. The portal steps are the same as in our overbilling complaint guide. Get the current portal and contact details from NEPRA's official website.
- Ask for the remedies NEPRA has already granted. These include load shedding at PMT level instead of the whole feeder, disconnection of defaulters, ABC cable and AMR meters in your area, and moving your PMT to a low-loss or load-shedding-exempt feeder.
In its 29 April 2026 decision, NEPRA directed KE to do the following within three months so that the complainant would get supply without load shedding: upgrade the area's network, disconnect defaulters, install ABC cables and AMR meters, and look into moving the complainant's PMTs to a low-loss or exempt feeder. It wrote that a paying consumer "cannot be held liable and punished on account of non-paying consumers." That decision came even though the Appellate Tribunal had restrained NEPRA's earlier one.
Mistakes to avoid
- Paying early or paying extra to escape the schedule. It will not work. Load shedding is set per feeder or PMT.
- Treating the September order as the end of the matter. KE says high-theft cuts continue, and earlier NEPRA action is under appeal.
- Expecting a refund. No compensation or bill reduction for hours of load shedding has been established. Complain for a change in supply, not money.
- Paying anyone who offers to get your PMT moved. Feeder changes are a matter for the company and NEPRA. Use only official channels.
What to do next
- Look up your feeder's published schedule today, starting from our load-shedding page.
- Start an outage log and keep it for at least a few weeks.
- Lodge a complaint with your company, quoting your log, and note the complaint number.
- If outages still run past the schedule, file with NEPRA and ask for PMT-level load shedding or a move to a low-loss feeder.
- Ask neighbours on the same PMT who also pay to complain too; NEPRA's remedies are applied to the transformer or area, not one house.
Sources
- NEPRA orders K-Electric to end load-shedding (The Express Tribune)
- Nepra directs KE to stop unannounced loadshedding (Business Recorder)
- NEPRA CRC decision on load shedding, 05 Aug 2026
- NEPRA CRC decision on load shedding, 22 Jul 2026
- NEPRA CRC decision on load shedding, 29 Apr 2026
- KE served show cause notice over not complying with orders to restrict loadshedding to PMT level (Dawn)
- K-Electric hints at load management as 'extreme' measure during evening, night peak hours (The Express Tribune)
- K-Electric ends temporary load shedding in Karachi (ARY News, secondary)
- Load-shedding linked to feeder losses: NA told (The Nation, secondary)
- Power loadshedding to continue on high-loss feeders, says Leghari (Business Recorder, 2024)
- Pakistan's power crisis deepens as electricity shortfall crosses 4,000 MW (Tribune India/ANI, context only)