Nepra allows Discos to charge Rs1.78/unit extra

ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) Wednesday notified its decision allowing power distribution companies (Discos), except K-Electric to charge Rs1.7799/unit extra from power consumers to collect Rs24.6 billion on account of monthly fuel price adjustment (FCA) for July 2019.

For June 2019, Nepra has asked Discos to reimburse at the rate of 0.1308/unit to consumers and pay them back Rs1.6 billion.

The notification the regulator issued for June and July 2019. The adjustment shall be applicable to all the consumer categories except lifeline consumers, domestic consumers consuming up to 300 units and agriculture consumers of all the XWDISCOs. The negative adjustment on account of monthly FCA is also applicable to the domestic consumers having Time of Use (ToU) meters irrespective of their consumption level.

The said adjustments for June and July shall be shown separately in the consumers' bills on the basis of units billed to the consumers in the month of July 2019 by the Discos, said the Nepra’s notification. It further said that Discos shall reflect the fuel charges adjustment in respect of July 2019 in the billing month of October 2019.

For the month of June CPPA-G had requested that the actual pool fuel cost for the month of June 2019 was Rs.5.1800 per kWh, against the reference fuel cost component of Rs5.1130 per kWh. The actual fuel charges, as reported by CPPA-G, for the month of June 2019 increased by Rs0.0669 per kWh as compared to the reference fuel charges.

The Authority, after incorporating all the adjustments, has reviewed and assessed a decrease of Rs0.1308 per kWh in the applicable tariff for Discos on account of variations in the fuel charges for the month of June 2019.

For July the CPPA-G had pleaded that the actual pool fuel cost for the month of July 2019 was Rs5.4687 per kWh, against the reference fuel cost component of Rs3.5420 per kWh. The actual fuel charges, as reported by CPPA-G, for the month of July 2019 increased by Rs1.9267 kWh as compared to the reference fuel charges. However, the Authority, after incorporating the all adjustments, has reviewed and assessed an increase of Rs1.7799 per kWh in the applicable tariff for Discos on account of variations in the fuel charges for the month of July 2019.

The Authority, while going through the Generation Mix data, noted that costlier energy of around 783 GWh at Rs14.920/kWh has been generated from furnace oil based power plants, whereas, efficient coal and RLNG/Gas based power plants like Sahiwal Coal, Port Qasim Coal, Engro Power Thar, Bhikki (RLNG), Baloki (RLNG), HBS (RLNG), Guddu 747 (Gas) have not been fully utilised.

The Authority observed that had the energy generated from costlier RFO based plants been generated from efficient power plants, it would have resulted in lower FCA for the month. In view thereof, the Authority directed CPPA-G/NPCC to provide the complete detail on hourly basis along with justification/reasons for non-operation of efficient power plants during such periods for consideration of the Authority.