KE Requests Another Fuel Cost Adjustment
Saad khan 
Islamabad: On Monday, Nepra announced an additional Rs 1.90 per unit charge for June and 93 paise each for July and August. Meanwhile, K-Electric has submitted an April FCA claim, adding to its pending Rs 18.6 per unit petition for the past nine months.
In its latest request to Nepra, KE presented a fuel price adjustment for April based on three scenarios. Under two scenarios, the FCA for KE consumers would decrease by 74 paise to Rs1.18 per unit. In the third scenario, consumers would face an additional FCA of 44 paise per unit.
Nepra has scheduled a customary public hearing on the matter for later this month. However, it has not yet concluded the cases for the previous nine months (July to March), despite having held a public hearing on May 9.
KE’s cumulative FCA adjustment requests, including those still pending with Nepra, total Rs 18.6 per unit, or approximately Rs 26 billion. This is being sought on a "provisional basis" under three different options to clear the backlog and avoid a sudden increase in the burden on its consumers.
KE, currently undergoing a multi-year tariff (2024–30) review by the regulator, has proposed three FCA calculation scenarios and requested approval of one to facilitate timely cost recovery and prevent further accumulation of adjustments. The scenarios are as follows:
1. Calculate the FCA as the difference between the actual fuel cost and the reference monthly fuel cost under the interim tariff.
2. Charge consumers the difference between actual and reference monthly fuel costs as per the tariff petition under Nepra’s review.
3. Adopt the difference between actual fuel costs and annual weighted average fuel reference costs as considered in KE’s tariff petition under review by Nepra.
Consumers of ex-distribution companies (Discos) have already paid an average of Rs2.89 per unit FCA for these months, according to KE’s team.
Separately, on Monday, Nepra notified an additional Rs1.90 per unit charge for June, followed by 93 paise each in July and August under the quarterly tariff adjustment (QTA), allowing power companies to collect an additional Rs46.6 billion from consumers. These rates apply to all K-Electric consumers under the uniform tariff policy, except those using fewer than 100 units per month, who fall under the protected lifeline category.
"The authority has decided to allow the instant positive quarterly adjustments of Rs46.613 billion pertaining to the third quarter of FY2023-24 over three months—June 2024 at Rs1.90/kWh and July and August 2024 at Rs0.93/kWh each—applicable to all consumer categories except lifeline consumers," Nepra announced last week and formally notified on Monday in the official gazette.
Notifications have been sent to all Discos, including KE, for the application of the Rs 1.90 per unit additional cost in June and 93 paise each in July and August.
Nepra has also completed the public hearing on the power division’s directive for about a 25 percent increase in the base national tariff, effective July 2024.
