ISLAMABAD:For K-Electric and ex-Wapda distribution companies (XWDISCOs) customers, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Thursday approved an increase of up to Rs11.37 per unit, resulting in an unprecedented increase in the power rate for the month of August.
The increase was made in connection with June’s fuel cost adjustment (FCA) and will aid the government in collecting an additional Rs155 billion in August.
The power regulator under the chairmanship of Tauseef H Farooqi held public hearings on both the privatised company and state-owned distribution companies’ petitions who had sought an additional FCA of Rs11.39 and Rs9.91 per unit respectively for the month of June.
After considering the information provided by the petitioners, Nepra approved K-request Electric’s to charge customers an extra Rs. 11.37 per unit and XWDISCOs’ request to charge customers Rs. 9.89 per unit in August.
It is important to note that Nepra increased the power rate for XWDiscos by Rs7.90 per unit in May as well due to the monthly FCA.
The country’s average base tariff will increase by Rs 7.91 per unit starting in July 2022, according to a decision made by the power regulator last week. Additionally, as part of a quarterly adjustment, the government had also approved a base tariff increase of Rs1.55 per unit.
According to a petition filed by the Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) on behalf of XWDISCOs, the reference fuel charges from the consumers for the month of June were Rs5.9344 per unit, while the actual fuel cost was Rs15.8439 per unit. It asked Nepra to inform customers of the increase of Rs9.9095 per unit.
According to information provided to the regulator, the CPPA-G claimed that during the month of June, 13876.14 GWh of electricity were produced at a cost of Rs204.237 billion (or Rs14.7186 per unit), while 13471.05 GWh were delivered to Discos at a cost of Rs213.434 billion (or Rs15.8439 per unit). 2.92 percent was reported as the loss for June.
According to the CPPA-G, the hydel generation fell to 3361.21 GWh (24.22%) in 2016.
