ISLAMABAD: National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has agreed in principle to allow power Distribution Companies (Discos) to increase their tariffs by Rs 2.87 per unit for March 2022 to recover additional cost of Rs 28.9 billion under monthly Fuel Charges Adjustment (FCA) mechanism.
The decision was taken at a public hearing on Wednesday, which was presided by Chairman Nepra Tauseef H Farooqi, Vice Chairman Rafique Ahmad Shaikh and Member KP, Maqsood Anwar Khan.
CPPA-G, in its tariff adjustment request had sought of Rs 3.16 per unit to recover Rs 31.8 billion from consumers as additional cost for March 2022.
During the hearing, the officials of National Power Control Centre (NPCC) noted that demand had increased by 24 percent in March 2022 as compared to projection of just four percent.
NPCC officials argued that forecast of Met Office was not accurate with respect to weather, adding that Met Office also forecast rain at the end of March, which proved wrong.
Nepra approves Rs2.86 per unit increase in power tariff for March
Vice Chairman Nepra, Rafique Ahmad Shaikh grilled NPCC officials for not having an accurate weather report when anyone could access weather forecast data.
Officials confirmed that shortfall was upto 3000MW as generation stood at 18500MW whereas demand was over 21000MW, saying that some units of coal-fired power plants were still closed due to inventory issues; and further stated that most of the recovery of Discos was being paid to plants for energy cost so that they could purchase fuel.
Nepra also deducted Rs 2.8 billion of M/s Lucky Power Plant as pre-COD sale but directed the representative of power company to sit with CPPA-G and sort out that issue and get back its amount. However, if the issue is not resolved the deducted amount would not be refunded to the power company.
Nepra’s Monitoring and Enforcement Department stated that the data indicated financial impact of violation of merit order and less supply of RLNG was Rs 350 million in March 2022. However, Nepra’s tariff adjusted only Rs 9 million.
According to the data submitted to Nepra, in March 2022, hydel generation recorded at 1,704 GWH which constituted 16.36 percent of total generation in the entire month. Power generation from coal-fired plant was 2,586.62 GWh (24.83 percent of total generation) at rate of Rs 12.4 per unit. Generation from FRO was 1,106.2 GWH (10.62 percent of total generation) at Rs 222.5214 per unit.
Electricity generation from gas-based power plants was 992.7 GWh (9.53 percent) at Rs 7.7672 per unit. Generation from RLNG was 1,965.68 GWh (18.87 percent of total generation) at Rs 14.3677 per unit.
Generation from nuclear sources was 1,563.66 GWh at Rs 1.00355 per unit (15 percent of total generation) and the electricity imported from Iran was 42.75 GWh at Rs 17.35565 per unit.
During the hearing a resident of Bahria Town, Masood ur-Rehman, raised the issue of higher tariff being charged to the residents as compared to other consumers of IESCO.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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