NEPRA indicates another Rs4.68 per unit increase

Raise will have a financial impact of around Rs40b

ISLAMABAD:

The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Thursday indicated another increase of Rs4.68 per unit on account of fuel adjustment for the month of February 2022, which will have a financial impact of around Rs40 billion.

The power regulator conducted a public hearing in the federal capital for the purpose.

The Central Power Purchasing Agency-Guaranteed (CPPA-G) had sought an increase of Rs4.94 per unit over reference fuel charges of Rs4.25 per unit whereas the total fuel cost of generation remained Rs9.19 per unit. However, after examining the data, the power regulator maintained that the price came to Rs4.68 per unit.

The raise will not apply to the K-Electric consumers.

Earlier, the power companies charged Rs5.94 per unit on account of fuel cost adjustment for the month of January 2022. Now they will be charging Rs1.26 per unit less tariff in April. However, the power regulator will announce a final decision later.

According to CPPA-G, the higher cost of imported fuels like coal, furnace oil, RLNG and high-speed diesel contributed to increase in the fuel cost adjustment for February 2022.

The raise will apply to all consumers including the lifeline consumers having ToU metres.

According to the data submitted to Nepra, hydel generation in February 2022 was 1,473.76 constituting 18.22 per cent of total generation.

Power generation from coal-fired power plants stood at 2,563.87 GWh in February 2022, which accounted for 31.7% of the total generation. The price of coal generation had been Rs13.0944 per unit but there was no generation from the HSD.

Generation from RFO increased to 526.73 GWh in February 2022 which accounted for 6.51 % of total generation, costing Rs21.4565 per unit.

Electricity generation from gas-based power plants remained 918.40 36 MW in February 2022 with a share of 11.36% in total generation, costing Rs8.1826 per unit.

The share of RLNG-based generation was 1,226 GWh or 15.16% of total generation at a cost of Rs14.3 per unit; nuclear-based electricity generation stood at 1,013 GWh with 12.57% of total generation at a cost of Rs1.1320 per unit; power generation from different sources (mixed) contributed 10.15 GWh, costing Rs5.1202 per unit; bagasse-based generation was recorded at 98.67 GWh price and calculated at Rs5.9822 per unit.

The share of energy generated from wind stood at 165.07 GWh, (2.04% of total generation) and solar generation remained at 58.12 GWh, accounting for 0.72% of the total generation.

The total generation stood at 8,087.85 GWh with the basket price at Rs.8.9355 per unit in February 2022. The total energy cost remained Rs72.269 billion.

The net delivered electricity was 7,774.13 GWh, at a total cost of Rs71.488 billion (Rs9.1957 per unit).