A little relief: NEPRA reduces tariff by Rs1 per unit

Cites dollar’s fall against rupee for power price revision.

ISLAMABAD: Electricity consumers are going to heave a sigh of relief for the second month in a row as the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has slashed tariff by Rs1 per unit on account of fuel price adjustment for March following depreciation of the dollar against the rupee.

This is a welcome announcement for the people who are experiencing increased power outages in recent days as weather gets warmer and demand surges.

The revised tariff, which is likely to reflect in electricity bills for April, will not be applicable to lifeline consumers consuming up to 50 units per month and K-Electric consumers.

This is the second consecutive month when consumers will be enjoying a tariff reduction because of fuel price adjustment. For February, the regulator had slashed tariff by Rs0.26 per unit.

However, for January, tariff had been revised upward by Rs2.24 per unit.



The regulator announced the tariff cut for March during a public hearing held on Tuesday and chaired by Nepra’s Acting Chairman Khawaja Muhammad Naeem.

In a petition filed with Nepra, the Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) said actual fuel cost stood at Rs8.9029 per unit in March against reference price of Rs9.9213 per unit, a decrease of Rs1.0184.

In the month, the CPPA said, total power generation was calculated at 6.53 billion units, but it sold 6.43 billion units to power distribution companies at a cost of Rs57.28 billion.

During March, 89.19 million units of electricity disappeared because of losses and theft, which constituted 1.37% of the total electricity delivered to distribution companies.

Nepra’s acting chairman attributed the tariff revision to the dollar’s depreciation against the rupee, which brought down furnace oil cost by Rs7 billion.

According to documents submitted by the CPPA, hydroelectric power generation was not up to the mark in March and plants were forced to bank on furnace oil and other sources of fuel. The share of hydroelectric power in total production was 24.57%.

Among other sources, the share of furnace oil-based electricity was 41.17%, gas 24.78%, nuclear 5.36%, high-speed diesel 1.63%, coal-based energy 0.18% and imports from Iran 0.48%.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 23^rd, 2014.

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