Cost of power generation bloats 76pc in seven months

KARACHI: Country’s power generation became 76 percent costlier in the first seven months of current fiscal year compared to same period a year ago, for the most part fueled by expensive RLNG (regasified liquefied natural gas) and coal, industry officials said on Saturday.

In this period, though power generation increased 9.3 percent year-on-year to 83,193 GWh (16,123 MW) from 76,126 GWh (14,753 MW) in the same months last fiscal, the growth resulted in higher tariffs for consumers.

“The expensive fuel driven high cost of generation was passed on to all non-lifeline consumers under fuel adjustment charges on monthly basis,” stated Samiullah Tariq, Head of Research Pakistan-Kuwait Investment Company.

The prices of RLNG and coal in the global market increased manifold during this period.

The power generation went up by 8.9 percent year-on-year to 8,797 GWh (11,824 MW) during month of January 2022, compared to 8,079 GWh (10,859 MW) in the same month last fiscal, the latest power generation data showed.

However, the fuel cost for power generation in the month increased by 102 percent year-on-year to Rs12.22/KWh mainly due to rise in furnace oil, high speed diesel, coal and RLNG-based cost of generation.

Tariq said power generation also became dearer because of more reliance on sources other than hydel- and solar-based generation, which decreased 52 percent year-on-year and 3 percent year-on-year, respectively.

Source-wise speaking, power generation from RLNG increased 115 percent in the seven months of this fiscal, compared to last fiscal and the fuel cost of power generation from this source jumped to Rs14.86 per KWh from Rs.6.91 per KWh in the same months last fiscal year. Power generation from coal surged to Rs11.31 per KWh compared to Rs.6.33 per KWh in the corresponding period last year, up 79 percent.

Generation from high speed diesel jumped to Rs22.34 per KWh in July-January of 2021-22 from Rs18.90 per KWh in the same period last year, registering a growth of 18.2 percent

Generation cost from furnace oil went up 55 percent to Rs19.65 per KWh from Rs12.67 per Kwh in the same period last year. Moreover, in the first seven months, the price of electricity imported from Iran increased 29 percent to Rs13.21 per KWh from Rs10.24 per KWh in the same months of last fiscal.

The cost of power produced from gas and nuclear sources rose 12 percent and 1.6 percent respectively, whereas the cost of power generated from Baggasse remained unchanged.