Islamabad July 23 2022: Pakistan power generation in fiscal year 2022, which runs from July to June, rose 10 percent to 143,193 Giga Watt hours (GWh) from 130,223 GWh a year ago as industries shift to grid due to higher cost of electricity generation on alternate fuels, according to data shared by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA).
The rise in generation was owed to higher generation from RFO, Nuclear, HSD, Wind and Solar.
Interestingly, generation of electricity from Nuclear rose significantly by 68 percent to its highest level of 18,248 GWh when compared with generation of 10,871 GWh in the last year. The fuel cost of generation on Nuclear was PKR 1.0 per unit which was lowest among all thermal based source.
This year is marked with Pakistan achieving milestone of 3,635 MW nuclear power generation capacity as the third nuclear power plant at Karachi is connected to the national grid in March. Currently there are total seven nuclear power plants installed in the country, out of which six are in operation. The first–ever nuclear power plant constructed in the country, Kanupp-1 (K-1), has been permanently shut down after operations of 50 years.
Solar and Wind based power generation increased by 10 percent and 58 percent to 785 GWh and 4,584 GWh during the fiscal year 2022 when compared with last year.
Power generation on coal declined 4 percent to 26,576 GWh when compared with the last year. Coal power generation in the country peaked at 2,917 GWh in January this year before sliding back to 1,883 GWh in June 2022. As a ratio of total generation in any given month in the last three years since the beginning of 2018, the share of coal power also drop from its peak of 33.2 percent touched in January 2022 to 13.5 percent in June 2022. According to data, share of coal generation in the country’s total electricity output bottomed to 9.2 percent in September 2018.
In the last five years Pakistan has aggressively pursued coal power under the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) initiative as well as outside it, increasing coal-based capacity from negligible to 4,620 megawatts. With seven other coal-based projects under construction, the country expects to add 4,590 megawatts by the end of 2026. However, significant increase in coal prices amid disruption in supply chain led to decline in generation from coal.
The per-unit fuel cost of electricity generation on Coal was PKR 13.0 in fiscal year 2022 versus PKR 8.1 in fiscal year 2021, increased by 88 percent.
Power generation on RLNG remained unchanged at 26,576 GWh when compared with the last year and gas based generation increased by 3 percent to 14,722 GWh when compared with the generation of last year.
The per-unit fuel cost of electricity generation on Coal was PKR 13.0 in fiscal year 2022 versus PKR 24.2 on RFO and PKR 18.3 on RLNG, the data showed.
