Islamabad March 20 2022: Pakistan power generation in February rose 11.1 percent to 8,088 gigawatt hours (GWh) from 7,278 GWh a year ago, according to data shared by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA).
The rise in generation was owed to higher generation from RFO, Nuclear, Wind, Gas and Coal. However, electricity generation is down 8.1 percent from 8,779 GWh from the previous month.
Power generation on coal rose 34 percent to 2,564 GWh when compared with the same month last year. Coal power generation in the country peaked at 2,917 GWh in January this year before sliding back to 2,564 GWh in February. 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 31.7 percent in February 2022. According to data, share of coal generation in the country’s total electricity output bottomed to 9.2 percent in September 2018.
The per-unit fuel cost of electricity generation on Coal was PKR 13.09 in February versus PKR 21.45 of RFO and PKR 14.3229 of RLNG, data showed.
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.
Power generation on RLNG decrease 3.4 percent to 1,226 GWh when compared with the same month last while gas based generation rose by 1.3 percent to 918 GWh when compared with the same month last year.
Interestingly, generation of electricity from Nuclear rose significantly by 28 percent to 1,013 GWh when compared with generation of 792 GWh in the same month of last year. The fuel cost of generation on Nuclear was PKR 1.13 per unit which was lowest among all thermal based source.
Electricity generation decreased by 27.5 percent to 1,474 GWh in February compared with generation of 2,034 GWh of electricity in February 2021, as per the data published by NEPRA.
Solar and Wind based power generation increased by 1.9 percent and 68.2 percent to 58 GWh and 165 GWh during the month of February 2022 when compared with same month last year.
