NEPRA defers hearing of tariff hike petition

Puts off proceedings on request of CPPA-G that is working on new cost mechanism

ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Tuesday deferred hearing of a petition filed by the Central Power Purchasing Agency-Guarantee (CPPA-G) for an increase in power tariff under the fuel cost adjustment mechanism for November 2019.

At the public hearing held by Nepra to discuss the proposed tariff hike of Rs0.9836 per unit, the CPPA-G requested the regulator not to conduct the proceedings as it was working on a draft being designed to change the mechanism for fuel cost adjustment.

CPPA-G Chief Executive Officer Abid Lodhi told Nepra it was going to change the mechanism for fuel price adjustment in line with public interest and the draft was being finalised. He asked the regulator to stop proceedings until the draft was finalised and dismissed the impression that the CPPA-G was encountering financial crisis.

For the month of November 2019, the CPPA-G, in the petition filed on behalf of power distribution companies, sought tariff increase of Rs0.9836 per unit to generate additional revenue of about Rs8 billion.

According to the petition, the power distribution companies had charged consumers a reference fuel cost of Rs2.449 per unit in November 2019 while the actual fuel cost came in at Rs3.4713 per unit.

Hence, the CPPA-G asked the regulator that it should be allowed to charge an additional cost of Rs0.9836 per unit from consumers next month.

According to data provided to Nepra, energy generation in November 2019 stood at 7,434 gigawatt-hours (GWh).

Total cost of energy generated amounted to Rs24.86 billion with average per unit fuel cost at Rs3.344 per unit. About 7,204 GWh were sold to the distribution companies for Rs25.01 billion at Rs3.4713 per unit. Total transmission losses in the month were calculated at around 3.1%.