ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) on Tuesday approved a 40-paisa per unit fuel cost adjustment (FCA) for K-Electric (KE) customers based on power consumed in August, to be reflected in January 2025 bills. This adjustment will add approximately Rs675 million in revenue for KE, falling short of its initial request for a 51-paisa increase to collect Rs853 million.
This FCA will replace the higher FCA of Rs3.04 per unit applied in December for electricity used in July, meaning the effective rate for January 2025 will be lower than the charges in November and December, where consumers face an FCA of Rs3.17 per unit.
The increase has faced opposition from Karachi’s business and commercial sectors, which argue that the adjustment burdens the city with higher costs than the national grid’s average of Rs8.8 per unit, given KE’s Rs24 per unit fuel expense for August. Critics have called on both NEPRA and KE to improve efficiency, pointing out that NEPRA’s 2021 directive for KE to limit loadshedding to pole-mounted transformers (PMTs) remains largely unimplemented.
NEPRA clarified that the FCA will not apply to lifeline consumers, prepaid metering customers, or electric vehicle charging stations (EVCS). Fuel charge adjustments account for shifts in global fuel costs and energy generation mixes.
