Discos allowed to charge additional Rs0.4/unit in November bills

Decision comes as DISCOs facing shortfall in payments for power consumed in Sep, period marked by escalated generation costs

By Israr Khan

November 09, 2023

The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) headquarters can be seen in this picture released on November 4, 2021. — Facebook/NEPRA

ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has granted permission to state-operated distribution companies (DISCOs) to levy an extra charge of Re0.4014 per unit on consumers’ electricity bills for November 2023.

This decision comes as a result of DISCOs facing a shortfall in payments for power consumed in September, a period marked by escalated generation costs.

The Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA-G), representing 10 DISCOs, had requested a tariff increase of Re0.5471 per unit as part of their monthly fuel charges adjustments for September 2023. These additional charges will be collected from all consumer categories except electric vehicle charging stations (EVCS) and lifeline consumers.

As per the CPPA-G’s petition, the reference fuel charges for consumers in September were Rs7.0711 per unit, while the actual fuel cost stood at Rs8.6182 per unit, justifying the sought increase of Re0.5471 per unit.

In other energy-related news, the National Transmission and Despatch Company Limited (NTDCL) reported provisional Transmission and Transformation (T&T) losses of 346.717 gigawatt-hours (GWh), amounting to 2.407 percent of the energy delivered on NTDCL system during September 2023.