Tariff for KE consumers raised by Rs0.40 per unit

Price hike will reflect in consumer bills for Jan 2025

ISLAMABAD:

The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has increased power tariff up to Rs0.40 per unit for the consumers of K-Electric (KE).

Nepra made the decision in response to a KE petition seeking provisional fuel charges adjustment for August 2024. The tariff revision will reflect in consumer bills for January 2025.

In a statement, KE said that fuel charges adjustment was sought by utilities due to global variations in prices of fuel used to generate electricity and changes in the electricity generation mix. These costs are included in consumer bills following Nepra's scrutiny and approval.

According to the regulatory authority's decision, the fuel cost adjustment will be applicable to all consumer categories except for electric vehicle charging stations, lifeline consumers and prepaid meter users.

Earlier, Nepra conducted a hearing to consider views of the public and other stakeholders, where they made various submissions.

Intervenors Imran Shahid and Ahmed Azeem submitted that despite privatisation about 19 years ago, KE was still not self-sufficient in power generation and continued to rely on Bin Qasim Power Station-I, resulting in higher fuel costs.

They were of the view that KE should be provided with more energy from National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC).

Imran Shahid mentioned that load-shedding had increased despite improved weather conditions and KE was resorting to power outages even after midnight.

Responding to that, KE stated that the cost of electricity generation from its own plants was high because it lacked nuclear and hydroelectric power plants and did not have sufficient supply of indigenous gas for its projects.

To reduce the generation cost, KE said, it had issued the Request for Proposals (RFP) for 640 megawatts of renewable energy. The competitive bidding process for the 150MW Vindar Uthal Bela Solar Power Project and the 220MW SITE Neutral Hybrid (Wind and Solar) Project had been concluded and bid evaluation reports had been submitted to Nepra, it revealed.

Bidding process for the remaining projects is ongoing. Additionally, the interconnection of 500-kilovolt KKI grid and 220kV Dhabeji grid with the national grid is in final stages and is expected to be commissioned within the year.

KE has also planned power off-take from the Jamshoro Coal Power Project after its conversion into local coal.

Regarding load-shedding, the company contended that load-shedding schedule was communicated to Nepra every day and was also updated on the KE website. "Load-shedding is being carried out until 2am on specific feeders as per the load-shedding policy."

Another intervenor, Tanveer Barry, pointed out that fuel cost adjustment for August 2024 was positive for KE whereas it was negative for the ex-Wapda distribution companies.

He highlighted that Nepra, in its annual report, mentioned that some of the KE plants were efficient while others lacked efficiency.

KE elaborated that the efficiency of recently installed plants could not be compared with older plants. The plants having the highest efficiency, which have been installed recently, may fall behind compared to new technologies after five years.

Power plants are being operated according to the economic merit order, where KE generates electricity from low-cost plants (using the available fuel resources) before resorting to expensive fuel sources.