Power generation cost declines as renewables, solar share goes up

KARACHI: Cost of power generation in the country went down by three percent in the month of October this financial year, compared to the same month of last fiscal.

Tahir Abbas, head of research at Arif Habib Limited said, “The decline in the total power generation cost was mainly triggered by rise in the power generation from hydel, nuclear, wind and solar sources.”

According to the data on the cost of power generation in the country, during October 2022, the fuel cost for power generation decreased by three percent to an average of Rs9.02/KWh compared with an average cost of Rs.9.30/KWh in the same month of last financial year. Whereas the cost of power generation also decreased by nine percent in October 2022 against September of this fiscal, when average cost of power generation was Rs9.91/KWh.

During the first four months of this fiscal, however, the cost of power generation was up by 40.81 percent compared to the same period of last fiscal. In July-October of 2022-23 the cost of electricity stood at Rs9.99/KWh against Rs7.09/KWh in the corresponding months of last fiscal.

The breakup of cost of electricity showed that on a year-on-year basis, the decrease in fuel cost was witnessed mainly due to a rise in hydel, nuclear, wind, and solar based generation. While on month-on-month basis, the decline in fuel cost was triggered by a decline in coal, which was utilised two percent less on MoM basis, RFO three percent MoM, RLNG seven percent MoM, and gas down one percent MoM.

On the other hand, power generation in the country went down by 5.2 percent YoY to 10,705 GWh (14,388MW) during the month of October of this fiscal compared to 11,296 GWh (15,183MW) during the same month of last fiscal.

On MoM basis, generation also decreased by 16.9 percent, whereas during the first four months of this financial year, electricity generation also decreased by 9.3 percent YoY to 51,786 GWh (17,543MW) compared to 57,086 GWh (19,338MW) during the corresponding months of last fiscal.

Oil production witnessed a jump of 9 percent WoW, settling at 69,285bopd amid production at TAL block returning to normal level post ATA.

Similarly, gas production depicted a growth of 9 percent WoW, clocking-in at 3,132mmcfd due to aforementioned reason. Moreover, gas production from Mari remained lower owed to ongoing ATA at Engo Fertilizers base plant.