Rs 1.04 trillion to private power plants, Rs 186bn to WAPDA for nearly as much

Figures presented in the Senate show the government paid Rs 1.04 trillion to private independent power producers for 49.8 billion units of electricity, and Rs 186 billion to WAPDA for 34.5 billion units.

Work that out per unit and the gap is stark. WAPDA's hydel power came to roughly Rs 5.39 a unit on average. The IPP payments come to roughly Rs 20.9 a unit, close to four times as much, before capacity charges are counted separately.

What each source actually costs

Tarbela produces a unit for Rs 2.70. Sahiwal produces the same unit for Rs 34.17, more than twelve times as much. Both feed the same grid and both end up in the same bill.

The capacity charge on top

Beyond the payment for electricity actually delivered, more than Rs 1.3 trillion was paid to IPPs in capacity charges during the current fiscal year. Capacity payments are owed whether or not the plant generates. They are contractual, dollar-indexed in many cases, and they are the single largest reason the per-unit tariff keeps rising while demand does not.

What this means for your bill

Nothing here is a line item you can see. Capacity payments and the fuel cost differential arrive on your bill as adjustments, surcharges and a rising base tariff. A household consuming 300 units a month is paying its share of a Rs 1.3 trillion obligation to plants that may have run at a fraction of capacity.

Two practical consequences:

• Slab discipline matters more than ever. Crossing a slab boundary costs more than the extra units themselves. Check where you sit with the electricity bill calculator.
• Solar payback keeps getting shorter. Every rise in the per-unit tariff shortens the time it takes a rooftop system to pay for itself. Run your own numbers on the solar payback calculator.

The structural problem

Cheap hydel capacity is fixed and seasonal. Tarbela and Mangla cannot be scaled up on demand, and river flows fall in winter exactly when the system leans hardest on thermal plants. Imported-coal plants at Sahiwal and Port Qasim are the expensive top of the stack, and their costs move with the coal price and the rupee, neither of which is under Pakistani control.

Watch the rupee on our dollar rate page: a weaker rupee raises the cost of every imported-fuel unit on that table.