National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Thursday approved an increase of Re 0.81 per electricity unit for power Distribution Companies (Discos) for February 2019 under monthly fuel price adjustment mechanism. The provisional decision was taken at a public hearing presided over by Vice Chairman, Rehmatullah Baloch. Member Punjab, Saif Ullah Chatha and Member Sindh Rafique Ahmad Shaikh also assisted the Vice Chairman.
The Central Power Purchasing Agency Guaranteed (CPPA-G), in its petition had requested the Authority to pass on the financial impact of over Rs 7 billion to consumers by increasing monthly tariff by Rs 1.23 per unit on the justification that the FCA impact is Rs 5.2 per unit. However, Nepra's technical team, in its calculation proved that the actual fuel charge component was Rs 4.785 per unit in February against reference fuel charge of Rs 3. 9710 per unit and proposed the Authority approves an increase of 0.8144 per unit.
According to Nepra, the price of coal has shown an increase of 9 percent in February 2019 compared to November, 2018, December 2018 and January 2019. The price of RLNG and Furnace Oil (FO) showed a declining trend during this period. However, the price of HSD increased to Rs 86 per litre in February as compared to Rs 82 per litre in November 2018.
As per notified determination of July 27, 2017, NTDCL is allowed technical and transmission (T&T) losses of 2.80 percent only at 500KV and 220KV network. CPPA-G claimed losses of 3.70 percent whereas the data provided by NTDCL shows T&T losses of 239.99GWh, i.e, 3.46 percent. Accordingly, for working out the FCA for February 2019, cumulative losses up to 2.80 percent were considered while calculating FCA of February 2019.
According to CPPA-G, the price variance in February 2019 was Rs 7.476 billion details of which are as follows: (i) coal-Rs 2.5 billion;(ii) RFO, 1.338 billion;(iii) gas, Rs 3.003 billion;(iv) RLNG, Rs 666 million;(v) nuclear Rs 36 million;(vi) electricity import from Iran Rs 29 million ;(vii) mixed Rs 87 million and ;(viii) baggasse, Rs 2 million.
CFO, CPPA-G Rihan Akhtar requested the Authority to review some parts of FCA's provisional decision as the required adjustment has not been allowed. The Authority assured that the provisional determination can be reviewed if required documents are provided to the technical team of Nepra.
CPPA-G had also claimed Rs 1.115 billion as previous adjustment; however, Nepra allowed only Rs 1.018 billion. Nepra allowed Rs 48.78 million against the claim of JPCL and Rs 33.31 million for NPGCL.
However, Nepra refused to allow Rs 48.59 million against claims of Al-Moiz Industries due to lack of concrete documentary evidence. The regulator also denied payment of Rs 0.29 million against claims of Layyah Sugar as CPPA-G has already received this amount.
The regulator also allowed Rs 6.45 million against claims of QATPL (Bhikki) but in case of Haveli Bahadar Shah, it allowed only Rs 1.42 million against claim of Rs 33.65 million. Nepra also allowed Rs 320.63 million to Balloki NPPML against claim of Rs 336.35 million, showing a reduction of Rs 15.72 million. Nepra also allowed supplementary charges of Rs 608.01 million to CPPA-G.
In February, net delivered electricity was 6,425.29GWh at a total price of Rs 33.420 billion or Rs 5.2014 per unit. On the basis of data, CPPA-G has calculated an increase of Rs 1.23 per unit over the reference price of Rs 3.9710 per unit. In February 2019, hydel generation stood at 1,522.6GWh which was 22.77 percent of total generation whereas 1167.69GWh was generated from coal at a rate of Rs 7.8932 per unit.
Electricity was not generated with High Speed Diesel (HSD). Generation from RFO was 112.35GWh, 1.68 percent of total generation at a price of Rs 11.9 per unit, while 1595GWh electricity was generated from natural gas at Rs 5.7927 per unit. Generation from RLNG stood at 1,129.23GWh, 16.89 percent of total generation, at a price of Rs 9.7643 per unit while generation from nuclear power plants was 744 GWh at a price of Rs 0.9512 per unit. Generation from wind stood at 212.5GWh, mixed, 23.5GWh at Rs 6.4751 per unit and import from Iran was at a price of Rs 11.57 per unit. Sugar mills which generate electricity from baggasse supplied 98.53GWh to national grid at a price of Rs 6.19 per unit whereas generation from solar was 52.93GWh.