KARACHI: NEPRA concluded its hearing on K-Electric’s petition of provisional monthly fuel charge adjustments (FCA) for November 2024, as a relief of PKR 4.98 per unit. Following the public hearing the regulator will issue a decision clarifying the FCA amount to be passed on to customer bills and the period for which they will be applicable. 

It is pertinent to note that this is the third consecutive FCA being passed on as a benefit to KE customers, with September FCA as relief of 0.16 paisa, and NEPRA recently passed judgement for October 2024 FCA, indicating a relief of PKR 0.492 per kWh which will be passed on to customers in their January 2025 bills. KE has also submitted the required partial load, open cycle and degradation curves along with startup cost for approval and accordingly pending for adjustment, based on NEPRA’s decision on the matter of KE’s Generation Tariff on October 22, 2024. The utility requests that the honorable Authority may also consider adjustment of aforementioned accumulated actualization of fuel cost so that the recovery can be made from the negative fuel cost variation to ensure consumers are not burdened at later stage. Fuel charge adjustments are incurred by utilities due to global variations in fuel prices used to generate electricity, and the changes in generation mix.

When fuel prices rise, adjustments are reflected in bills, and similarly, when fuel prices decrease globally, the relief is passed on to the customers in the form of reduced FCA. All FCAs are calculated in accordance with the regulatory guidelines and reflected in customer bills following NEPRA’s scrutiny and approval. Speaking on the electricity supply situation, Muhammad Aamir Ghaziani, CFO K-Electric, reiterated that industries are exempt from loadshedding.  Furthermore, 70% of KE’s network remains load shed free, and the schedule is uploaded on KE website. In winters, scheduled preventative maintenance shutdowns are essential for the upkeep of the network for continued reliable supply of power.