Power generation rises by 46pc MoM in May

KARACHI: Power generation rose by 46 per cent in May on a month-on-month (MoM) basis to 12,284GWh (16,510MW), according to official data released on Thursday. In April, the country generated 8,639GWh of energy.

The data shows a 2.7 per cent increase in power generation on a year-on-year (YoY) basis in May. However in the first eleven months of FY2024, power generation dropped by almost 2.0 per cent.

Per the data, power generation fell to 113,705GWh (14,100MW) in the July-May period of this financial year against 115,876GWh (14,412MW) in the same period last year, also highlighting a 5.5 per cent decrease in the cost of power generation as compared to the first eleven months of FY23.

During May 2024, the actual power generation was 11.3 per cent lower than the reference generation, said Tahir Abbas, Head of Research at Arif Habib Limited (AHL) adding that this decline is expected to result in higher capacity charges for 2QFY25 QTA.

In his research report, he attributed the monthly hike to improved generation from hydel and imported coal. However, with regard to the first eleven months of this fiscal year, the decline was owed to lower generation from nuclear and gas.

The total cost of generating electricity in the country decreased significantly by 10 percent, clocking in at Rs8.74KWh in May 2024 compared to Rs9.72 KWh registered in the same period of the previous year.

The decline in the cost of power generation came mainly on the back of decrease in power generation cost from RLNG, which declined to Rs24.01KWh, a fall of nearly 2.0 per cent, as compared to Rs24.46KWh in the same period last year.

During the first eleven months, the cost of power generation fell by 5.5 per cent mainly on the back of reduction in the cost of power generation from imported coal and RLNG.

During the month of May, hydel emerged as the leading source of power generation, accounting for 31 per cent of the generation mix, to become the largest source of electricity generation in the country.

This was closely followed by RLNG, which accounted for 21.8 per cent of the overall generation, ahead of nuclear, which accounted for 18.7 per cent of the power generation share.Among renewables, wind, solar and bagasse generation amounted to 3.5, 1.0 and 0.5 percent, respectively, of the generation mix.