Rs4.94/unit more likely to be charged from power consumers in April bills

ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) may allow the power distribution companies (Discos) to collect an additional Rs4.68/unit from the power consumers in their electricity bills for April 2022, as they paid less than the actual cost of power generation in February 2022.

In a public hearing on a petition filed by the Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) on behalf of Discos, the power regulator hinted at allowing up to Rs4.68/unit extra collection owing to costly imported fuel for power generation. This amount has been preliminary calculated based on the data the CPPA had submitted to the regulator. The Nepra will notify its final decision in a few days, which may vary from this figure. And this is not a tariff but an additional collection for one month due to a fuel price hike.

Nepra Chairman Tauseef H Farooqi chaired the public hearing along with other members. This adjustment will not apply to K-Electric. This privatised entity is dealt with separately. Its latest decision for the utility, Nepra, has allowed to collect an additional Rs3.278/unit from its customers in their electricity bills for April 2022. This fuel charge adjustment for KE

has been calculated on the data for January 2022.

The CPPA has asked the authority for the monthly fuel cost adjustment (FCA) as it said that the oil fuel cost and RLNG were much higher than what was charged from the consumers.

The CPPA pleaded that it had charged the consumers a reference tariff of Rs4.2516 per unit in February 2022 while the actual fuel cost was Rs9.1957/unit. Hence it should be allowed to increase the rate by Rs4.94 per unit.

According to the data provided to Nepra, the most expensive energy generation sources, including high-speed diesel (HSD) and residual fuel oil (RFO), were consumed more than usual in previous months, which also jacked up the total cost of generation. In contrast, the least expensive (renewable) share reduced drastically during the month. Interestingly, the share of the RLNG-based power also declined.

According to the petition, the total energy generated in February was 8,087GWh. The hydel generation share was 18.22 percent of all energy sources’ generated power pie in February. It contributed 1473.76GWh of electricity to the national grid. Coal-based power share was 31.70 percent (2563.87 GWh) with a per-unit cost of Rs13.0944/unit.

Furnace oil-based power plants generated 6.51pc (or 526.73 GWh) with Rs21.4564/unit cost. No electricity was generated from High-Speed Diesel (HSD) during February.

RLNG-based power generation stood at 15.16 percent (or 1226.01 GWh), and its per-unit cost was Rs14.3229. The local gas share was 11.36 percent (918.40GWh). Its generation cost was Rs8.1826/unit. Nuclear fuel contributed 12.53pc (1013.26 GWh) at Rs1.132/unit, wind power 2.02 percent (165.07 GWh), and bagasse 1.22 percent (98.67 Gwh) at Rs5.982/unit. Electricity imported from Iran contributed 0.42pc (33.82 GWh) at Rs15.6885/unit. The share of solar power was 0.72pc (58.12 GWh).