Islamabad March 20, 2025: NEPRA concluded its hearing on K-Electric’s petition of provisional monthly fuel charge adjustments (FCA) for January 2025, as a relief of PKR 4.84 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.
Fuel charge adjustments are incurred by utilities due to global variations in fuel prices used to generate electricity, and the changes in generation mix. These costs are reflected in customer bills following NEPRA’s scrutiny and approval. Customers also benefit from negative FCA in their bills when global fuel prices decrease. Rates charged to customer bills are determined by NEPRA and notified by the Federal Government.
Referring to points raised during the hearing, Moonis Alvi – CEO, K-Electric highlighted that the development work on the 500 kV interconnection is currently under completion from NTDC’s end and it is expected to be operational by the end of this summer. Once completed, KE’s four interconnections will have the ability to optimally transfer over 2000 MW to Karachi from the national grid. Answering further, he emphasized that the current interconnections are sufficient given the power supply commitments from the national grid while any future additions in terms of interconnections are subject to a firm commitment from the national grid on increased supply to Karachi.
KE has also highlighted the adjustments regarding part load, degradation curves, and startup costs pursuant to determination of Generation Tariff of Powerplants of KE for the period post June 2023 and requested NEPRA to consider the recovery of the same from negative fuel cost variation to ensure that consumers are not burdened at later stage.
As per the Regulatory Authority’s decision, the negative FCA shall be applicable to all the consumer categories except lifeline consumers, domestic protected consumers, Electric Vehicle Charges Stations (EVCS) and prepaid electricity consumers of all categories who opted for prepaid tariff.
ABOUT K-ELECTRIC:
K-Electric (KE) is a public listed company incorporated in Pakistan in 1913 as KESC. Privatized in 2005, KE is the only vertically integrated power utility in Pakistan supplying electricity to Karachi and its adjoining areas. The majority shares (66.4%) of the Company are owned by KES Power, a consortium of investors including Al-Jomaih Power Limited of Saudi Arabia, National Industries Group (Holding), Kuwait, and the Infrastructure and Growth Capital Fund (IGCF). The Government of Pakistan is also a shareholder (24.36%) in the Company while the remaining are listed as free float shares.