Month of October: CPPA-G seeks around Rs 1.75/unit increase in Discos' power tariff

Central Power Purchase Agency-Guaranteed (CPPA-G) has sought about Rs 1.75 per unit increase in Disco's power tariff across the board for the month of October 2019 under the Monthly Fuel Price Adjustment (FPA) mechanism.

CPPA-G's tariff petition and generation data will be presented to National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on December 26, 2019 at a public hearing, to be attended by the petitioner and representatives of National Power Control Centre (NPCC) and National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC).

According to the data submitted by the CPPA-G, a total of energy generated in October 2019 recorded at 9,572Gwh at a total cost of Rs 48.013 billion. The basket per unit price of generated electricity was calculated at Rs 5.0159 per unit. However, CPPA-G has also sought previous adjustment/supplemental charges of Rs 3.535 billion or Rs 0.3667 per unit, Rs 439 million (Rs 0.0367 per unit) against supply of 16.51Gwh electricity to IPPs and transmission losses of 258.94Gwh at a price of rate of Rs 0.1490 per unit. However, net delivered to Discos was recorded at 9,296.6Gwh at a total cost of Rs 51.109 billion. CPPA-G has calculated per unit cost of net delivered electricity at Rs 5.4976 per unit.

Hydel generation in October 2019 recorded at 2,438.8Gwh which was 25.48 percent of total generation, whereas generation from coal was 2,357Gwh, 24.62 percent of the total generation.

In October, total cost of electricity generated from coal was Rs 13.790 billion, RFO-Rs 259 million, gas-Rs 8.419 billion, RLNG-Rs 24.045 billion, nuclear-Rs 895 million, import Iran-Rs 498 million, mixed-Rs 89 million and bagasse-Rs 18 million. However, generation from High Speed Diesel (HSD) was zero whereas 19.26Gwh of electricity was generated from furnace oil at a price of Rs 13.4435 per unit. Generation from natural gas was recorded at 1,165Gwh (12.17 per cent in total generation) at a rate of Rs 7.271 per unit while RLNG-fired power generation was 2,432.7Gwh (25.41 per cent of total generation) at a rate of Rs 9.8837 per unit. Generation from nuclear sources was 883Gwh at a rate of Rs 1.0134 per unit, whereas mixed generation and wind was recorded at 13GWh (at Rs 6.8 per unit) and 153Gwh respectively.

CPPA-G, in its petition has claimed that on the basis of data, the price of net delivered electricity has been calculated at Rs 5.4976 per unit against reference price of Rs 3.7579 per unit and sought an increase of Rs 1.7397 per unit for October 2019. The final decision will be taken by the Authority on December 26, after analysis of data, hearing the viewpoint of officials and civil society.

In the previous hearings, CPPA-G and NPCC faced criticism for not performing according to their mandate and in accordance with the instructions issued by the regulator from time to time. The regulator also disapproved additional Rs 7 billion sought by the CPPA-G against use of furnace oil by ignoring cheaper electricity from efficient power plants which were on better number in the economic merit order.