Power tariff increased by Rs1.56 per unit
The decision was taken at a monthly public hearing scheduled for Dec. 26 at 11am in Islamabad.
ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Thursday allowed Rs1.56 per unit increase in power tariff for all the power distribution companies, except K-Electric, on account of fuel price adjustment for the month of October.
The decision was taken at a monthly public hearing scheduled for Dec. 26 at 11am in Islamabad.
The Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA), on behalf of the distribution companies (DISCOs), had filed a petition for tariff increase saying the actual fuel cost in October was higher than that charged to the consumers, and hence an increase of Rs1.73 per unit be allowed to be recovered from consumers next month.
The higher tariff approved by the regulator is expected to generate about Rs14.5 billion additional revenue to the power companies during the next billing month i.e. January, 2020.
The adjustment, however, is not applicable to K-Electric and lifeline consumers using less than 50 units of other Discos.
The CPPA had sought permission for increasing consumer tariff by Rs1.7397 per unit. It told the regulator that it had charged reference fuel price of Rs3.7579 per unit from consumers in October, while the actual cost turned out to be Rs5.4976 per unit.
The CCPA said that a total of 9,296.60 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity was generated in October. Net electricity delivered to power distribution companies was 9,572.06GWh, whereas transmission losses came to 258.94GWh.
The regulator was told that the highest 25.48pc electricity was generated from hydel sources, around 12.17pc of electricity was generated from natural gas, and 25.41pc electricity was generated from RLNG-based, and no power was generated using high speed diesel in the month of October.
The NEPRA officials were of the view that power generation companies’ performance has been improved in terms of curbing losses.
