Decision on appeal to increase power tariff by Rs4.99 per unit reserved

Islamabad: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) completed the hearing on the appeal to increase the price of electricity by Rs4.99 per unit and reserved the decision.

According to the details, a hearing was held under the chairmanship of NEPRA Chairman Waseem Mukhtar on the request of Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) to increase the price of electricity.

CPPA said that the demand of electricity was down by 12.2% in February. Member NEPRA Rafique Sheikh said that CPPA has stopped listening to NEPRA authority, how many times they have been told to make measures to increase electricity demand.

Rafique Sheikh further said that in a few months the use of local coal in power generation has decreased by 36% which increased the import bill, cost of electricity and capacity payments.

Member NEPRA remarked that power generation from Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) has increased by 100%. Rafique Sheikh said that thermal power plants are generating 35% of power, making capacity payments of 65% of these plants.

Mazhar Niaz Rana of NEPRA said that a strategy should be formulated to reduce the capacity payments.

Officials of the National Transmission and Distribution Company (NTDC) told NEPRA that when the LNG-powered plants were installed at low-cost, now the same plants are producing electricity at a high cost.

The authorities have adopted the position that the operation of the plants is necessary for the stability of the electricity system. The NTDC system in the country is built for 26,000 Mega Watts (MW), the electricity demand in the country comes up to 8,000 MW.

Increase in population, decrease in power demand, NTDC

NTDC officials said that the population is increasing and the demand for electricity is decreasing. Member NEPRA Rafique Ahmad Sheikh said that we are not a poor country, our management is poor.

NTDC officials stated that the use of solar is increasing in the country, due to which electricity is becoming expensive. On which member NEPRA replied that people started moving towards solar because of load shedding, now that electricity has become expensive, this is a convenience for people.

Officials Power Division added that the capacity payments have increased a lot, the role of the US dollar is beyond our control.

NEPRA has reserved the decision on the power price hike petition after completion of hearing which will be issued and notification will be released after checking the data.

NEPRA summons report on reduced electricity demand

NEPRA has asked for a report on how much electricity demand has decreased in which sector.

Chairman NEPRA said that restructuring is needed to increase the demand for electricity, adding that 592 billion subsidies is being given to consumers with less than 400 units per month.

He raised the question whether the current tariff structure is sustainable. The government should review the tariff structure to increase business activities, added Chairman.

It is pertinent to note that on March 19, a request for a further increase in electricity price by Rs4.99 per unit was submitted by CPPA to the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority.

Notable, the monthly adjustment of February will be applied to the bills of April. If the increase is applied, the consumers will have an additional burden of more than 40 billion rupees including sales tax, the monthly adjustment will not be applied to Lifeline and K-Electric customers.