Islamabad:
The country’s power regulator is working to establish a single system operator with a unified basket for the entire country. Right now, K-electric-Karachi’s Private Tools 1 and state-owned distribution companies (discos) have separate systems for calculating electricity costs.
The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) can take one to two years to establish the system, Power Division told the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) in the cabinet during a recently held meeting.
The Power Division estimated that NEPRA is working to establish a single system operator with a unified basket for the whole country, and K-ELECTRIC’s integration into this framework is expected to be realized within 1-2 years.
It said to secure uniform tariffs in line with national electricity policy and to tackle deviations between K-electric and other consumers, a proposal for approval was submitted. The finance department approved the proposal with the recommendation to review it after one year.
To determine the adjustment of fuel taxes for discos, the proposal for uniformed fuel adjustment may be considered. In its comments, Nepra stated that adjusting fuel taxes for K-ELECTRIC and DISCOS continued to be determined independently on the basis of their respective fleet cost data and generational mixture to ensure legislative transparency and compliance with principles of cost reflectivity.
The Ministry suggested that uniformity at the end of the consumer can be achieved through politically driven adaptation of the codified power purchase price adjustments (PCAs) with separate provisions on fuel costs for K-electric and Discos.
Any uniform use had been driven by politics and supported through subsidies/cross -subsidies in accordance with national electricity policy.
Furthermore, the effect of implementing the individual shipping model should also be investigated in the approval of the summary. Comments from NEPRA are in line with the proposal.
The power department clarified that K-electric is entitled to 1,000 MW from the National Grid, with any additional drawing allowed on a pro-rata basis. It said K-ELECTRIC’S OFF-TAKE recently increased to approx. 1,600 MW, which made up more than 65% of its generational basket.
Power Division requested the approval of the ECC to the proposal contained in the summary. The ECC approved the proposal with the provision that the same should be reviewed after a year.
During a recent public consultation of NEPRA on fuel adjustment, the interveners had raised concerns about the uniformed fuel adjustment for K-electric.
They were of the opinion that the uniformed fuel adjustment would deprive consumers of the relief they had received due to fuel adjustment every month.
