Another hike in power tariff on the cards

ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority on Thursday reserved its decision regarding a proposed power tariff hike for the consumers of all DISCOs and K-Electric under the head fuel charges adjustment (FCA) for June 2022.

As per details, NEPRA on Thursday conducted two separate hearings on the FCA of June 2022 for the K-Electric and the power distribution companies (DISCOs). The two hearings were held under the chair NEPRA Tauseef H. Farooqi wherein Rafique Ahmed Shaikh and Engineer Maqsood Anwar were in attendance. 

During the course of the hearing, CPPA pleaded that approximately 13 billion units of electricity were produced at a cost of around Rs213 billion while cost of each unit of power generation with coal source was at Rs20.80, furnace oil Rs36.20, local gas Rs8.92 and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Rs28.38/unit in the month of June. Similarly, electricity imported from Iran was supplied at Rs19.57/unit and cost of line losses of each unit was 42 paisa.

According to NEPRA, the Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) on behalf of power distribution companies (DISCOs) has sought a hike of Rs9.91 per unit in the power price while K-Electric (KE) requested to jack up the power tariff by Rs11.39/unit on account of FCA of June 2022. After scrutiny of the data so far submitted by the two, the power tariff hike should be Rs11.37/unit for the consumers of KE and Rs9.89/unit for the consumers of DISCOs under FCA of June 2022.

However, NEPRA will issue its detailed judgement later on the two separate applications of CPPA & KE after necessary scrutiny of the submitted data.

As per NEPRA, this proposed power tariff hike under FCA of June will be applicable on all power consumers except lifeline consumers of KE and DISCOs for only one month.

An official of NEPRA on anonymity while talking to Profit said that KE has so far justified Rs11.37/unit hike for its consumers while CPPA justified Rs9.89/unit for the consumers of DISCOs under FCA of June 2022 and NEPRA is likely  

Based on the information provided by CPPA in its application on behalf of power distribution companies (DISCOs), total power generation with various fuels was 13,876.14-Gigawatt hour while net delivered to DISCOs was 13,471.05 GWh in the month of June.

Similarly, power generation in the month of June with hydel source was 24.22 per cent, coal 13.57 per cent, Residual Fuel Oil (RFO) 10.48 per cent, gas 10.66 per cent, Re-gasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) 24.43 per cent, nuclear 9.12 per cent, wind 5.58 per cent, Iran import 0.37 per cent, mixed 0.07 per cent, solar 0.62 per cent and Baggasse 0.60 pc. Moreover, reference fuel charges for June were fixed at Rs5.9344 per kilowatt hour and CPPA proposed an increase of Rs9.9095 per kWh.

Sources in the power sector said that consumers of all DISCOs would bear around Rs 155 billion while Karachiites would face an additional burden of more than Rs22 billion on account of FCA of June through next month’s electricity bills.

It is pertinent to mention that NEPRA had earlier approved a Rs7.91/unit increase in power price for only one month on account of FCA for May 2022 for the consumers of DISCOs.

The authority also approved Rs9.52/unit hike in power price for consumers of KE on account of FCA of May 2022.