Nepra jacks up power price by Rs11.37 per unit

Hike comes after June's monthly FCA

ISLAMABAD:

The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Thursday allowed an increase of up to Rs11.37 per unit for K-Electric and ex-Wapda distribution companies (XWDISCOs) consumers, which would result in an unprecedented hike in the power tariff for the month of August.

The surge has been made in the context of June’s monthly fuel cost adjustment (FCA) and would help the government collect an additional Rs155 billion in August.

The power regulator under the chairmanship of Tauseef H Farooqi held public hearings on both the privatised company and state-owned distribution companies’ petitions who had sought an additional FCA of Rs11.39 and Rs9.91 per unit respectively for the month of June.

After deliberation on the data submitted by the petitioners, Nepra allowed K-Electric to charge an additional Rs11.37 per unit and XWDISCOs to collect Rs9.89 per unit from power consumers in August.

It is worth mentioning here that for the month of May also, Nepra had increased the power tariff by Rs7.90 per unit for XWDiscos on account of monthly FCA.

Last week, the power regulator had allowed a hike of Rs7.91 per unit in the average base tariff across the country in three phases, starting from July 2022.  Additionally, the government had also approved Rs1.55 per unit increase in base tariff under a quarterly adjustment.

A petition submitted by the Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) on behalf of XWDISCOs noted that for the month of June, the reference fuel charges from the consumers had been Rs5.9344 per unit while the actual fuel cost was Rs15.8439 per unit. It requested Nepra to pass the increase of Rs9.9095 per unit to the consumers.

In the data shared with the regulator, the CPPA-G maintained that 13876.14 GWh electricity was generated during June at a cost of Rs204.237 billion (or Rs14.7186 per unit) while 13471.05 GWh had been delivered to Discos at Rs213.434 billion (or Rs15.8439 per unit). The losses during June were reported at 2.92 per cent.

The CPPA-G said that the hydel generation had decreased to 3361.21 GWh (24.22 per cent) in June from 3590.92 GWh (24.5 per cent) in May.

The agency further said that 1454.04 GWh (10.48 per cent) of expensive electricity was generated from furnace oil during June which was higher than the 1290.33GWh (8.80 per cent) RFO-based generation of May.

The RFO-based electricity in June cost was Rs36.2024 per unit which was higher than May’s cost of Rs33.67 per unit. No power was generated from high-speed diesel during the month.

The natural gas-based generation contributed 1479.32 GWh (10.66 per cent) of electricity to the national grid in June at Rs8.9264 per unit.

The cost of re-gasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG) based electricity was also increased to Rs28.3833 per unit in June from Rs27.92 per unit during the previous month. The RLNG-based electricity contributed 3390.54 GWh (24.43 per cent) to the national grid.

The generation from coal-based power plants decreased to 1883.13 GWh (13.57 per cent) in June from 2018.19GWh (13.77per cent) in May.

Coal was the comparatively cheaper source for power generation as compared with RFO and RLNG as it cost Rs20.8077 per unit. In May, per unit cost of coal-based power was Rs18.01 per unit.

The generation from nuclear power plants also decreased to 1265.67 GWh (9.12 per cent) in June from 1890.38GWh (12.90 per cent) in May. Per unit cost of nuclear power was Rs1.1244 per unit.

In June, Pakistan imported 51.49GWh of electricity from Iran at a cost of Rs19.57 per unit.

From bagasse, 83.01 GWh electricity was generated at Rs5.9822 per unit. Wind, solar and mixed sources contributed 811.59GWh, 86.82 GWh, and 9.87GWh respectively to the national grid during June.