KARACHI: Power generation recorded 10 percent decline in the first eleven months of the current fiscal, with cost of production jumping up by six percent in the period under review, data showed on Tuesday.
Power generation decreased by 10 percent YoY to 115,876 GWh (14,412MW) compared to 129,317 GWh (16,084MW) during the corresponding months of the last financial year, data showed.
During the 11 months, generation from hydel sources decreased by 0.5 percent, coal almost 26 percent, RFO-based power generation declined 63.6 percent, whereas wind-based power generation also decreased by seven percent. On the other hand, solar-based power generation increased by 38.5 percent, and power produced from nuclear source also jumped by almost 31 percent.
However, the cost of electricity production decreased by 26 percent in the month of May this fiscal compared to the same month of the last financial year, statistics of power generation.
On YoY basis, the decrease in fuel cost in May was mainly due to a decline in coal, FO, and RLNG-based cost of generation along with a 38 percent YoY rise in solar based generation, said Tahir Abbas, Head of Research at Arif Habib Limited.
Data showed that power generation went down by 16 percent YoY to 12,284 GWh (16,510MW) during May 2023, compared to 14,657 GWh (19,700MW) during May 2022. On a MoM basis, generation increased by 23 percent.
The cost of power generation showed that during May 2023, fuel cost for power generation decreased by 26 percent YoY to an average of Rs9.72 per KWh compared with an average cost of Rs13.15 per KWh during May 2022. Fuel cost also decreased by 5 percent MoM.
However during the first eleven months, the cumulative cost of power generation jumped by six percent. It went up to Rs9.30 per KWh in the months under review from Rs8.76 per KWh in the same months of last fiscal.
The fuel cost in July-May of this fiscal went up due to 44 percent increase in the cost of RLNG-based power generation, 44 percent increase in RFO-based power generation, 30 percent rise in gas-based power, 21 percent in coal-based and three percent increase in the cost of nuclear-based power generation.
During the first eleven months of this fiscal, the share of hydropower remained 27.7 percent, RLNG 17 percent, coal 16 percent, nuclear 19.2 percent, gas 11.5 percent, wind three percent, RFO 3.7 percent RFO, and solar 0.8 percent.
