ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has notified about Rs2.60 per unit relief to consumers of K-Electric in the next month’s bills on account of lower fuel cost in December 2021.

“The authority has approved negative fuel cost adjustment (FCA) of Rs2.5953/kWh for December 2021 having an impact of Rs3.038 billion, to be passed on in the bills of March,” Nepra said.

The regulator said the FCA will be applicable to all the consumer categories except lifeline consumers, domestic consumers consuming up to 300 units and agriculture consumers of K-Electric.

The negative adjustment on account of monthly FCA will also be applicable to the domestic consumers having Time of Use (ToU) meters irrespective of their consumption level.

The public hearing on the subject was held on Feb 2. The KE had filed the petition for a reduction in FCA saying it had charged its consumers a reference fuel cost of Rs14.65 per unit in December 2021 which actually turned out to be Rs12.85 per unit. Therefore, it recommended a downward reduction of Rs1.80 per unit in FCA.

The regulator, however, said the scrutiny of data provided by the K-Electric worked out a reduction of Rs2.60 per unit on the basis of actual FCA for December came in at Rs12.06 per unit.

In the case of application of the incremental industrial and winter incentive package, the amount of negative FCA allowed to such KE consumers would be adjusted in the subsequent bills.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2022