The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has decided to increase the electricity rates for Karachi by 12 rupees 68 paise per unit. However, the new tariff will not affect residential customers.
The authority announced its decision on Monday at a public hearing it held on the fuel adjustment charges that K Electric was imposing on its customers between April and June 2022.
In a detailed decision, Nepra said that the negative FCA will not be transferred to lifeline consumers, residential consumers consuming up to 300 units and agricultural consumers.
Similarly, positive FCA will not be given to Lifeline customers and the difference will be adjusted quarterly.
Further, it noted that “K Electric had claimed Rs 57.98 million in its quarterly adjustment towards positive/negative FCA which was not refunded to consumers during the quarter.
The additional amount sought was considered as per Nepra’s decision.
Nepra explained that it allowed the adjustment charges for April to June 2022, as the FCA clearance to K Electric remained positive.
Additional billing?
K-Electric in its application has asked for a quarterly adjustment based on the units expected to be sold in the next quarter of 4,615 GWh.
KE has now provided actual units shipped for July-September 2022, which comes to around 4,390 GWII after adjusting for allowed losses.
This was used in the calculation of quarterly adjustments.
Increase is Required.
K Electric sent a request to increase its tariff by Rs 14.53 per unit.
However, after checking the data provided by K-Electric, Nepra approved the supply of electricity at the rate of Rs 12.68.
It has also been decided that Nepra will maintain a uniform tariff across the country and bear the difference in tariff through subsidized rates.
Net Metering Adjustment
Nepra also asked what adjustments were made in power generation and transmission due to net metering.
The authority asked KE about the additional net metering units provided by KE and their cost and whether it is being adjusted in the monthly FCA working.
For previous periods, KE was asked to provide details of previous net metering units and its financial impact, if the same was calculated in the respective monthly FCAs.
KE told the authority that it has an impact of Rs 11.7762 million, to be deducted.
Nepra noted that the effect of KE was incomplete as the inclusion of units in the monthly FCA would also affect the quarterly adjustment work.
Similarly, K-Electric’s quarterly adjustment from January 2019, after adding additional net metering units to the total shipped yesterday. This resulted in an additional deduction of Rs.84.6 million, thus the total deduction in the current quarterly adjustment is Rs.96.42 million, as per deduction.
