ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Thursday notified electricity consumers of an additional burden of Rs16 billion by allowing Rs1.11 per unit in higher fuel costs in October billing.
In a notification, Nepra said it had decided that the “positive fuel cost adjustment (FCA) for August 2026, i.e. Rs1.1086 per kWh … shall be applicable to all the consumer categories of K-Electric and ex-Wapda distribution companies (XWDISCOs), except lifeline consumers, electric vehicle charging stations and prepaid consumers of all categories who opted for the prepaid tariff”.
The regulator said the higher FCA would also apply to consumers under the incremental consumption package.
Discos and K-Electric are required to reflect the fuel cost adjustment for August 2026 in the October 2026 billing month.
Nepra allows Rs1.11 per unit adjustment for power consumption in August
The Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) had reported that the actual average fuel charges component for August 2026 amounted to Rs8.8265 per kWh, against the reference fuel charges component of Rs7.0998 per kWh approved in the applicable notified consumer-end tariff.
Accordingly, it had demanded an additional FCA of Rs1.73 per unit for electricity consumed in August 2026.
After certain adjustments, Nepra worked out the actual fuel component of the tariff at Rs8.2084, instead of Rs8.8265 as claimed by CPPA, thus allowing an additional FCA of Rs1.11 in October billing, instead of the Rs1.73 per unit demanded by CPPA.
The higher additional fuel cost in August stemmed from expensive RLNG imports from the spot market, as contracted supplies from Qatar remained under force majeure, besides higher coal imports and lower-than-estimated availability of cheaper hydropower and nuclear generation.
Hydropower was originally targeted to account for about 41 per cent of total power generation, but its share fell to just below 38pc, while the share of nuclear power was estimated at 16.4pc but turned out to be 10pc due to an outage at Karachi’s nuclear power plants.
As a consequence, the share of imported coal-based generation increased to 15.6pc, instead of 7.4pc as originally planned.
Hydropower has no fuel cost, while the average nuclear fuel cost rose to Rs3.15 per unit due to lower utilisation, up from Rs2.5 per unit.
In contrast, imported coal-based generation cost Rs17 per unit. The cost of local coal-based generation was reported at Rs5.5 per unit.
The cost of RLNG-based generation was reported at Rs45.93 per unit, even higher than the Rs45.25 per unit cost of furnace oil-based power generation, which also includes a petroleum levy of Rs73,000 per tonne.
The FCA is reviewed monthly under the tariff regime applicable across the country and usually applies to consumers’ bills for one month only.
Under the tariff mechanism, fuel cost changes are passed on to consumers only monthly through an automatic mechanism. In contrast, the federal government builds quarterly tariff adjustments into the base tariff to reflect changes in power purchase prices, capacity charges, variable operation and maintenance costs, and use-of-system charges, including the impact of transmission and distribution losses.
Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2026
