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Thursday March 28, 2024

Power tariff raised by Rs0.57/unit

By Israr Khan
January 24, 2019

ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Wednesday allowed an increase of Rs0.57/unit in electricity tariff for all the power distribution companies except K-Electric on account of fuel price adjustment for December 2018.

This increase has been made as in December the cost of fuel was high while the power consumers were charged with low rates, so this adjustment/increase has been made to recover that amount, the power regulator said.

Ex-Wapda Discos would charge this Rs0.57/unit increase in electricity bills of February 2019. Nepra took this decision in a public hearing here on Wednesday. The regulator also took notice of the use of expensive furnace oil for power generation instead of RLNG for power generation and asked Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) to provide the complete details of RLNG supply agreement for the power plants. The cumulative collection under this head would be of Rs4.2 billion.

Vice Chairman Nepra, Rehmat Ullah Baloch chaired the meeting questioned the reason for using of expensive furnace oil instead of cheap RLNG. Member Nepra from Punjab, Saifullah Chattah asked the CPPA that why less RLNG was provided to the power plants in December? Don’t you have an agreement for the RLNG supply to the power plants, he further asked? If yes then why less RLNG was provided, he added.

The authority asked to provide complete detail of LNG supply agreement. The use of Residual Fuel Oil (RFO-Furnace oil)-based electricity generation in December was also increased to 930.78 GWh or 12.06 percent from 5.75 GWh or 0.08 percent in November. The total cost of the RFO based electricity during December was Rs14.19 billion or 15.25 per unit. The hydel generation also reduced by almost 48 percent during December.

CPPA had proposed an increase of Rs0.6356 per unit for the month of December on behalf of ex-Wapda Discos. Nepra disallowed the transfer of 3.58 percent transmission losses to the consumers, saying it is way too high from the Nepra’s permitted losses and allowed an increase of Rs0.57 per unit.

In its petition the CPPA said it had charged consumers a reference tariff of Rs5.8619 per unit in December while the actual fuel cost turned out to be more than the amount charged and hence it should be allowed to increase the rate by Rs0.6356 per unit.

According to the petition, total energy generated in December 2018 was 7718.65 GWh at a total price of Rs44.75 billion which is Rs5.7982 per unit. Of the total generation of 7718.65 GWh, the net electricity delivered to Discos were 73442.35 GWh at Rs48.36 billion with a transmission losses of 3.58 percent.

According to the data the share of hydel power generation in December 1334.49 GWh which was 17.29 percent of the total generation. In November the hydel generation was 2563.97 GWh or about 33.98 percent.

The share of Re-gasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) was reduced from 17.23 percent in November to 12.06 percent in December. The energy generated from RLNG was 930.78 GWh and it was added with the cost of Rs10.1167 per unit.

Residual Fuel Oil (RFO)-based electricity generation was increased from 5.75 GWh in November to 930.78 during December. RFO based electricity contributed 12.06 percent electricity at Rs15.25 per unit.

The total generation, in December, from local gas based electricity was 1679.26 GWh, accounting for 20.04 percent of total generation and its cost of electricity was Rs4.9686 per unit. Coal based generation was increased from 13.83 percent in November to 20.25 percent in December. The total generation from coal based energy was 1563.13 GWh and per unit cost was Rs6.8046. The total generation cost of coal electricity was Rs3.3820 per unit in October.

The share of nuclear energy in the national energy mix was 896.59 GWh which has increased to 11.62 percent in December from 10.88 percent in November. The fuel cost of the nuclear energy was 95.39 paisa per unit. Baggasse based electricity contributed 70.39 GWh or 0.91 percent at cost of Rs6.2017 per unit. The share of electricity imported from Iran was 36.11 GWh and the cost of the electricity was Rs11.5709 per unit. The share of wind energy was 170.66 GWh and it share in the generation mix increased from 1.68 percent in November to 2.21 percent at zero fuel cost. While 52.93 GWh or 0.69 percent contribution came from solar energy at no cost. Mixed Energy also contributed 23.76 GWh or 0.31 percent electricity to the national grid at the cost of Rs6.5254 per unit.