ISLAMABAD, March 29: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Wednesday announced a 30-year indicative and upfront tariff for new private thermal power projects that goes up to 17.56 cents or Rs10.55 per unit.

The announcement was discreetly made by Nepra through placement of detailed determination on its website and no official was ready to speak on record about the subject.

Average power tariff currently applicable to the consumers is about Rs4.09 per unit that has been increased by more than 100 per cent since 2004.

The 1994 power policy had brought in over 3000-mw of additional electricity generation capacity. Not a single power project could be materialized since then despite announcement of three different power policies in 1998, 2000 and 2002.

As a result, an upfront tariff has been reintroduced in emergency to overcome looming power shortfalls.

The upfront and indicative tariffs have been announced by Nepra on the directives of the federal government that is estimating to face power shortages ranging between 900 and 1400 mw in 2007 that will keep on increasing at about 10 to 12 per cent per year.

The new tariffs will vary in Punjab and Sindh. Power generation based on gas will be cheaper in Punjab whereas diesel-based projects will cost less in Sindh.

The 25-year level-wise tariff for combined cycle power plants based on gas and diesel or gas and residual fuel oil (RFO) will range between 6.7 cents per unit to 7.8 cents per unit depending upon project capacity.

All the tariffs have been calculated on a 60 per cent plant factor basis and are a combination of capacity payment in certain cases besides variable costs of fuel, operation and maintenance and fixed costs of operation and maintenance and insurance etc.

The simple cycle tariff for BOO (build, own and operate) projects during the construction period for up to 200-mw plants will amount to about Rs5.4 to 5.5 cents per unit on gas, 10.4 to 17.56 cents per unit on diesel and about 10.4 to 11 cents per unit on the RFO.