ISLAMABAD: Attock Gen Limited (AGL) has urged National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) to issue revised Fuel Cost Component (FCC) against all its pending requests.
In a letter to Chairman NEPRA, the power generation company referred to its pervious correspondence on this matter, through AGL, which emphasized the importance of the statutory obligation of NEPRA imposed by the Legislature under Section 31 (4 of the NEPRA Act 1997, to process the pending fuel cost adjustment decisions for the months of June to December 2023.
In accordance with law, and AGLs Tariff determination, the requisite FCC decisions are to be issued within seven days. For ease of reference Section 31 (7) of the NEPRA Act 1997 is as follows “Section 31 (7) Provided that the Authority may, on a monthly basis and not later than a period of seven days, make adjustments in the approved tariff on account of any variations in the fuel charges and policy guidelines as the Federal Government may issue and notify the tariff so adjusted in the official gazette.”
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This time line, as apparent in the accentuated text in the replicated Section, is also intrinsically embedded in the AGL tariff determination that are also replicated for ease of reference: “adjustment on account of local inflation, foreign inflation, foreign exchange rate variation, KIBOR variation and fuel price variation will be approved and announced by the Authority for immediate application within seven working days after receipt of AGL’s request for adjustment in accordance with the requisite indexation mechanism.”
The power generation company argued that NEPRA has not taken the FCC decisions on fourteen FFC adjustments.
The power company drew attention to the number of days that have elapsed since the time NEPRA ought to have taken the FCC decisions. AGL has been delivering power to the NTDC system without delay or any disruption despite NEPRA’s inordinate delay in the issuance of above said FCC adjustment decisions.
According to the letter, AGL is contractually entitled to reimbursement for the cost of fuel used during six months’ period. However, due to inexplicable delay by NEPRA in taking the decisions, it is unable to have its invoices verified from the Power Purchaser.
Consequently, AGL faces a financially crippling situation since there is no revenue available from Energy Purchase Part of tariff in the absence of NEPRA’s fulfillment of its mandated function.
The power company further stated that tariff determination granted to it by the Authority, was based on various factors which are crucial to the functioning and performance of AGL in accordance with its Generation Licence, and delivery of electric power in accordance with its Power Purchase Agreement. Any departure from these crucial factors would seriously undermine the viability of the project and frustrate its functioning.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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