Pakistan generates lesser energy from expensive fuels in July-April FY23

KARACHI: Pakistan produced lesser electricity at a higher cost in the first ten months of the current financial year due to increased power generation from expensive fuels, data showed on Friday.

Total power generation in July-April FY23 stood at 103,592 GWh (14,198 MW) compared to 114,660 GWh (15,715 MW) during the same period last fiscal. However, the cost of power generation during the period under review went up 12.8 percent, data showed.

Power generation went down by 23 percent year-on-year to 10,010 GWh (13,903 MW) in April 2023 compared to 12,960 GWh (18,001 MW) during April 2022. On month-on-month basis, generation increased by 15 percent, while cost of power generation increased 25 percent MoM in April 2023.

During April 2023, fuel cost for power generation increased 25 percent MoM to an average of Rs10.24/KWh compared with an average cost of Rs8.22/KWh during March 2023. However, it remained unchanged on YoY basis.

On a MoM basis, the increase in fuel cost was witnessed mainly due to a decline in nuclear and hydel-based generation along with a 41 percent and 9 percent MoM rise in coal and furnace oil-based cost of generation, said Tahir Abbas, head of research at Arif Habib Limited.

During the first ten months, power generation from RLNG was down by 17.2 percent, from coal down by 28.3 percent, RFO 61 percent, high speed diesel 81 percent.

During the period, power generation from nuclear source was up 37 percent, hydel 0.4 percent and solar was up 38 percent.

The cost of electricity generated from RLNG went up by 61 percent during the first ten months of the current fiscal, while the cost from RFO was up 55.6 percent, coal 30.5 percent, gas 31.2 percent, nuclear 2.9 percent and HSD 23.3 percent.

The share of various fuels in electricity generation showed that RLNG-based power generation had 16.1 percent share in the first ten months of the current fiscal, which was 17.6 percent in the same period of last year.

The share of nuclear-based electricity increased to 19.9 percent in the period under review compared to 13.2 percent in the same months of the last fiscal. Similarly, share of hydel power went up to 27.8 percent in the period under review, from 25 percent previously.

On the other hand, the share of coal power decreased to 15.7 percent from 19.8 percent. The share of RFO and HSD also declined during the period under review.