ISLAMABAD: With the beginning of the new fiscal year, the electricity costs continued to maintain the rising trend of last fiscal year as ex-Wapda Distribution Companies (Discos) and K-Electric have sought permission to extract about Rs29.5 billion more from their consumers next month amid hot and humid weather conditions.

In their separate tariff petitions, Discos are seeking to raise about Rs25.1bn more from their consumers in their fuel cost adjustment (FCA) while KE has sought to extract about Rs4.4bn in August’s bill for electricity consumed in June.

The National Electric Power Regul­atory Authority (Nepra) has accepted the respective tariff petitions and has called public hearings on July 26.

Once approved, Discos would charge an additional Rs1.885 per unit to their consumers despite over 58pc power generation in June being from domestic cheaper fuels that were slightly higher than 56pc in May and 54pc in April.

Regulator fixes public hearings on 26th

On the other hand, KE would be able to charge R2.34 per unit additional cost to consumers to mop up about Rs4.4bn under FCA in August.

The power firms are seeking FCAs despite an average base tariff increase of over Rs7 per unit and a reduction in the cost of import fuels like furnace oil and liquefied natural gas.

One of the key reasons behind the FCA is the relatively lower availability of hydropower generation (30pc of basket share) than estimated in the reference tariff. The contribution of hydropower generation in the overall national power grid in May was 26.96pc against 24pc a month earlier. Hydropower has no fuel cost.

The LNG-based power generation at 18.55pc of the total power supply in June was down from 24.33pc in May but maintained its second position after hydropower. The third largest share came from coal-based generation at 17.75pc in June compared to 16.78pc in May. The nuclear generation slightly improved to 13.54pc in June when compared to 12.6pc in May but was still way behind its 19pc in April and 24.28pc in February.

Power supply from domestic gas also dropped to 8.54pc in June against 10.35pc in May and 12pc in April.

The fuel cost of furnace oil-based power generation increased to Rs26.1 per unit in June against Rs23.24 per unit in May. The LNG-based power generation in June slightly dropped to Rs24.07 per unit in June against Rs24.5 per unit in May. Furnace oil-based generation increased to 5.4pc in June against 1.96pc share in May.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2023