NEPRA raises power tariff by Rs1.11

August FCA to add Rs19b burden for consumers

ISLAMABAD:

Electricity consumers have been hit with an increase of Rs1.11 per unit as the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) on Thursday issued a notification to raise the power tariff for one month under the August fuel cost adjustment (FCA).

According to the notification, the increase will be recovered from consumers across the country, including Karachi, through their October electricity bills.

The August FCA would place an additional burden of Rs19 billion on electricity consumers.

NEPRA has formally notified the increase, which is applicable for one month only under the August FCA.

The higher additional fuel cost in August stemmed from expensive RLNG imports from the spot market, as contracted supplies from Qatar remained under force majeure, besides higher coal imports and lower-than-estimated availability of cheaper hydropower and nuclear generation.

Hydropower was originally targeted to account for about 41 per cent of total power generation, but its share was slightly below 38pc, while the share of nuclear power was estimated at 16.4pc but turned out to be 10pc due to an outage at the Karachi's nuclear power plants.

As a consequence, the share of imported coal-based generation increased to 15.6pc, instead of 7.4pc as originally planned.

Hydropower has no fuel cost, while the average nuclear fuel cost increased to Rs3.15 per unit due to lower utilisation, instead of Rs2.5 per unit. In contrast, the cost of imported coal-based generation came to Rs17 per unit. The cost of local coal-based generation was reported at Rs5.5 per unit.

The cost of RLNG-based generation was reported at Rs45.93 per unit, even higher than the Rs45.25 per unit cost of furnace oil-based power generation, which also includes a petroleum levy of Rs73,000 per tonne.

The FCA is reviewed every month under the tariff regime applicable across the country and is usually applicable to consumers' bills for one month only.