Rs 26.07 per unit to be charged for additional winter usage

• The government is reviewing the structure of winter electricity tariffs nationally.
• Incentives introduced for conservation amid rising energy demand.
• Additional charges apply beyond seasonal consumption limits.
  

ISLAMABAD: The National Electricity Regulatory Authority (Nepra) has approved the federal government’s Winter Demand Initiative for XDISCOS and K-Electric (KE) consumers, it said The News on Saturday.

According to a Nepra statement on Friday, the winter package will benefit net metering and wheeling industrial consumers, even though they were not initially included in the government’s demand.

Under the winter pack, the price of the extra units to be used, compared to the previous year, will be Rs 26.07 per unit and the pack will be valid for three months — from December to February.

The announcement also said that the relief or reduction will be provided to consumers on their December bills.

The Authority said the reference consumption will be the higher of either the relevant month’s consumption in 2024 or the historical consumption over the past three years for the relevant months, based on the approved formula.

He felt that the proposed initiative, being subsidy neutral, would not have an impact on the tariff set by Nepra as the marginal cost variation, if any, would be passed on through the monthly FCAs. On the other hand, if the marginal cost remains lower, the benefit of this will be shared with consumers through quarterly tariff adjustments.

Regarding the implementation of the KE consumer initiative, the Authority observed that the KE submitted its reports on the Multi-Year Tariff (MYT), seeking tariff revision based on the actual data sent, in line with the mechanism applicable to XWDiscos and This request is currently under review by the Authority.

The Authority is also aware that excluding KE consumers from the winter package would not only have a negative impact on sales growth, a factor taken into account by the Federal Government when introducing the package, but would also result in discriminatory treatment of KE consumers .

Therefore, the Authority recognized that KE consumers should not be deprived of the benefits of the winter package provided by the Federal Government.

In light of this, the Authority has decided that the JV will be compensated in the same way as other Discos for the duration of this winter package while determining, adjusting the final consumer tariff. Therefore, the JV is required to extend the same relief to its consumers under the winter package.

Meanwhile, Nepra has approved a reduction of Rs 1.14 per unit in the monthly adjustment of fuel charges for October.

According to Nepra, the Central Power Purchase Authority (CPPA-G) had submitted a request for a reduction of Rs 1.01 per unit, which Nepra considered after a public hearing on 26 November.

The reduction will apply to all consumers of distribution companies (Discos), excluding lifeline consumers, prepaid users and electric vehicle charging stations. However, it will not apply to JV customers.

The Authority considered the request/information provided by CPPA-G seeking the monthly fuel cost adjustment (FCA). On perusal of the information provided by CPPA-G, the actual pool fuel cost for the month of October 2024 as claimed by CPPA-G was Rs 9.2593 per unit against the reference fuel cost component of Rs 10.2752 per unit unit.

Actual fuel charges, as claimed by CPPA-G, for October 2024 have been reduced by Rs 1.0159 per unit compared to benchmark fuel charges.

Further, CPPA-G also provided data that in October 2024, 21.93 GWh was procured from power producers who had bilateral contracts with Discos.

The Authority calculated the fuel costs for the month of October 2024, after accounting adjustments and including the costs resulting from the application of various factors.

In light of the Authority’s previous decisions with the FCA separating each Disco after accounting for the energy purchased by the CPPA-G, bilateral contracts and net metering have been drawn up as part of an individual basket of each Disco.

However, since a uniform tariff regime is applicable in the light of the Nepra Act, NE policy and plan, the Authority has also worked out a national average uniform monthly FCA to be charged to all consumers of XDisco and in the light of Nepra has approved a reduction of Rs 1.14 per unit in the monthly fuel charge adjustment for October 2024 to be applied to December 2024 electricity bills.

Later, Energy Minister Owais Leghari commented that the government was committed to further reducing electricity prices.