Under the monthly fuel cost adjustment, K-Electric (KE) has requested an Rs. 4.86 per unit increase from the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) (FCA).
This FCA petition is for April, and customers will be charged in July. The Karachiites will have to pay an additional Rs. 9.35 billion if the monthly FCA is granted as per KE’s appeal.
For the first-quarter ending in March, NEPRA will propose increasing KE’s rate by Rs. 4.52 per unit.
On June 14, NEPRA will hear both petitions and determine whether the KE followed the merit order while deploying power plants and purchasing power from outside sources. It will also examine KE’s statistics to see if the monthly fuel adjustment and quarterly tariff adjustment requests are reasonable.
In 2019, NEPRA introduced a Multi-Year Tariff (MYT), which included a system for MYT changes on a monthly and quarterly basis.
The request comes at a time when the whole country, including Karachi, is facing long-term power disruptions due to a rumored severe scarcity of fuel, mainly gas, at K-Electric.
According to KE’s Director of Communications, Imran Rana, the supply of cheaper indigenous gas to K-Electric has remained nil since the beginning of this year, while the cost of RLNG has remained over Rs. 4500 per MMBtu, compared to Rs. 1500 per MMBtu around the same time last year.
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