NEPRA approves Rs2.6b refund for consumers

Reduces power tariff by Rs2.23 per unit for June

ISLAMABAD: National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Tuesday approved Rs26 billion refund for consumers of power Distribution Companies (Discos) by reducing tariff by Rs2.23 per unit for June 2017 under monthly price fuel adjustment formula.

The decision was taken at a public hearing presided over by Nepra Vice Chairman Saif Ullah Chatha in the absence of Chairman Brig (retd) Tariq Saddozai.

Member Balochistan Maj (retd) Haroon Rashid, Member Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Himayat Ullah Khan and Member Sindh Syed Masoodul Hassan Naqvi also attended the meeting.

Representatives of CPPA-G and National Power Control Centre (NPCC) will be available to questions raised by authority members.

The reduction in tariff will not be applicable on K-E consumers, lifeline consumers and agriculture consumers.



Central Power Purchasing Agency-Guaranteed (CPPA-G) had recommended refund of Rs2.13 per unit to the consumers of Discos for June 2017 under monthly fuel price adjustment mechanism.

However, MD, CPPA-G, Muhammad Rehan informed the authority that Rs912 million with respect to M/s Rousch has been mentioned twice, requesting that only Rs912 million should be taken in total cost.

The reduction of Rs25 billion in fuel cost component was due to favourable generation mix including Rs12.2 billion on account of less prices of furnace oil. This trend is witnessed in the last two months.

Masood Akhtar, a Nepra official, in his comments said that the Ministry of Water and Power is giving priority to public sector gas-fired power plants over most efficient IPPs like Saif, Saphire and Orient.

Ilyas Ahmad of NPCC, agreed to the viewpoint of the Nepra official saying that NPCC has written letters to the concerned ministries demanding that priority should be given to efficient plants at the time of gas allocation.

However, MD CPPA-G claimed that the two public sector power plants mentioned by the Nepra official are connected with the systems of SSGC and SNPGL and the ministry has different viewpoint on this issue, adding that gas availability in two companies and their technical constraints are different.



According to CPPA-G petition, total generation in June  2017 was 11,458m23  GWh, of which hydel generation was 3,490  GWh (30.4  per cent of total generation), coal 652.2 GWh, HSD 155.4  GWh,  RFO 2,559.9 GWh, gas 1,111.8  GWh, RLNG,1,407 GWh, nuclear 657 GWh, import from Iran 53.9 GWh, mixed 26.6 GWh, wind195.6  GWh, bagasse 94 GWh, solar 54.2 GWh.  Power sale to IPPs was 13.95 GWh whereas transmission losses were recorded at 233.5 GWh, total cost of which was Rs220.9 million. The net delivered electricity in June 2017 was 11,210.8 GWh, the cost of which has been calculated at Rs52.627 billion.

In June ,  per unit cost of electricity generated on coal has been calculated at Rs4.3 per unit, HSD Rs14.35  per unit, RFO Rs9.49  per unit, gas Rs4.25 per unit, RLNG Rs7.45 per unit, nuclear 1.03  per unit, import Iran Rs10.63 per unit, mixed Rs6.9775 per unit, bagasse Rs6.17 per unit. The total per unit cost of electricity generated has been calculated at Rs4.4374 per unit and after deduction of sale cost of power to IPPs and transmission losses, the total per unit cost was 4.6943 against reference fuel charges of Rs6.8283/kWh.