Saturday, October 21, 2023
Decline due to decline in coal, RLNG costs.
Total electricity production in September was 18,526 MW.
The data show that the hydel was the main source of power generation.
KARACHI: Electricity generation costs fell by more than 25% year-on-year in September due to increased hydropower output and lower gas and coal prices, The News reported citing the latest data.
In the previous month, the average cost of power generation was Rs 7.42 per kilowatt hour compared to Rs 9.91 a year ago, brokerage Arif Habib Ltd said in a report citing National Electricity Regulatory Authority (Nepra) data.
“The cost of power generation decreased by 25.2% year-on-year during the month of September but is still higher than the benchmark cost of Rs 7.07/KWh,” said Tahir Abbas, head of research at AHL.
“The year-on-year decline in fuel prices is mainly due to the decline in coal and regasified liquefied natural gas (RLNG) production costs, along with a 14% year-on-year increase in hydla. generation founded."
The cost of power generation saw a month-on-month decline of 10.3% compared to an average cost of Rs 8.27 in August.
Meanwhile, the country's electricity generation in September 2023 was 13,339 GWh (18,526 MW), up 3.6% compared to the same period last year. In September 2022, electricity production was reported to be 12,878 GWh (17,886 MW).
The year-on-year increase in electricity production is due to local coal sources, which reached 1,479 GWh in September 2023, up 155.6% year-on-year.
In addition to local coal, improved RLNG (16.8%), hydel (13.7%) and bagasse (2.9%) contributed to the year-on-year increase. However, on a monthly basis, electricity generation fell by 16.4% compared to the 15,959 GWh registered in August.
During the first quarter of the current financial year, electricity generation also rose by 7.4% year-on-year to 44,138 GWh (19,990 MW) from 41,081 GWh (18,606 MW) in the same period last year.
The data showed that hydel was the main source of power generation accounting for 37.6% of the generation mix and became the largest source of electricity generation in the country in the month of September.
Electricity generation was followed by nuclear power, which accounted for 17.1% of total generation, followed by RLNG, which accounted for 16% of electricity generation.
Of renewable energy sources, wind, solar and bagasse accounted for 3.1%, 0.6% and 0.3% of production, respectively. Local coal accounted for 11% and imported coal for 4% of the country's total electricity generation.
