Pakistan’s power generation cost declines nearly 18% in August

Amid rising electricity bills, the cost of power generation in Pakistan registered a significant decline of nearly 18% in August 2023.

The electricity generation cost in the month stood at an average of Rs8.27/KWh compared with an average cost of Rs10.06/KWh in the same period of the previous year, a decline of 17.8% YoY, said brokerage house Arif Habib Limited (AHL) on Wednesday.

AHL attributed the significant decline in cost to decline in coal, furnace oil (FO), and RLNG-based cost of generation along with a 106% YoY, 14% YoY, 12% YoY, and 9% YoY rise in wind, solar, hydel, and nuclear-based generation, respectively.

However, despite the decline in the cost of power generation, the rising electricity bills have become a headache for the country’s populace, who are already feeling the pinch of high inflation and slow economic activity.

Meanwhile, power generation in the country clocked in at 15,959 GWh (21,451MW) in August 2023, up 13.6% as compared to the same period last year.

Back in August 2022, power generation stood at 14,053 GWh (18,888MW).

The year-on-year (YoY) increase in power generation comes on the back of hydel-based sources, which reached an all-time high of 6,006 GWh during August 2023, up by 12% YoY, said AHL.

Apart from hydel, the YoY increase was attributed to improved Re-gasified Liquid Natural Gas (RLNG) (56.1%), coal (9%), and nuclear (8.9%).

Meanwhile, power generation from wind, a renewable source, also witnessed massive growth, generating 805 GWh in August 2023, up 106% YoY.

On a monthly basis, power generation improved by 7.5%, as compared to 14,839 GWh registered in July.

Moreover, in 2MFY23 (July to August), power generation also went up by 9.2% YoY to 30,799 GWh (20,698 MW) compared to 28,203 GWh (18,954 MW) in same period last year.

In August, hydel was the leading source of power generation, accounting for 37.6% of the generation mix, to become the largest source of electricity generation in the country. Followed by RLNG, which accounted for 17.2% of the overall generation, followed by coal which accounted for 14.8% of the power generation share.

Among renewables, nuclear energy accounted for 12.8% of the total energy mix, meanwhile, wind, solar and bagasse generation amounted to 5%, 0.5% and 0.2% of the generation.