Pakistan’s electricity generation surges 12pc

KARACHI: Pakistan’s overall power generation witnessed a growth of 12 percent to 11,805GWh in July as compared to 10,540GWh in July 2015.

Rao Amir Ali at Arif Habib Limited said growth in generation was mainly due to increase in generation from furnace oil (FO), which surged 38.5 percent to 3,187GWh in July as compared to 2,300GWh in the same month of the last year.

“Uptick in FO generation is attributable to higher generation at Northern Block-II, Kapco, Hub Narowal, Kohinoor Energy, Lalpir Power, Attock-Gen and Atlas Power.” In addition, the generation from gas also witnessed a growth of 31.5 percent in the month to 3,865GWh.

Uptick in gas-based generation was led by Orient Power, Saif Power, Engro Powergen, Sapphire Power and Liberty Power.  However, generation in July from hydel, HSD and others dropped 12.8 percent, 54.8 percent and 43.6 percent, respectively.

During July, the electricity generation cost of FO declined 30 percent to Rs7.5/KWh and HSD was down 18.8 percent to Rs12.8/KWh.  “This was primarily due to the downward trend in oil prices, FO and HSD prices plunged 20.4 percent and 16.7 percent, respectively, in the month,” Ali said. In addition, generation cost of gas also dipped 4.9 percent to Rs5.2/KWh as compared to Rs5.5/KWh in July 2015.