Discos allowed to extract additional Rs15bn from power consumers

Around 100 plants paid Rs99bn in capacity payments in Oct-Dec despite most of them operating at below 20pc ISLAMABAD: With almost two-thirds of power plants operating at less than 20 per cent utilisation factor, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Wednesday notified ex-Wapda Distribution Companies (Discos) to charge 47 paise per unit to their consumers to mop up Rs15.5 billion in additional funds under the quarterly tariff adjustment (QTA) mechanism. Nepra in a notice said it had allowed the positive quarterly adjustments of Rs15.454 billion for the second quarter (October-December) of 2022-23, to be recovered from the consumers in three months i.e. April, May and June. The Nepra order showed that about Rs99bn was paid to a total of 96 power plants on account of capacity payments during the second quarter (October-December) of the current fiscal year and only about 37pc of them could be operated at more than 20pc capacity utilisation, raising a question mark on the efficiency of the country’s generation capacity and those running them and managing the power sector.