Gulpur Hydropower Project: NEPRA Approves 30-Year Tariff of 9.3843 Cents (Rs14.85) per Unit

ISLAMABAD: The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) has approved a 30-year levelised tariff of 9.3843 US cents, equivalent to around Rs14.85 per unit, for the 102-megawatt Gulpur Hydropower Project in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

According to Business Recorder, the Gulpur Hydropower Project, located on the Poonch River in Muzaffarabad district, was developed by Mira Power Limited (MPL). The project has a net contracted capacity of 100.98MW and is expected to generate 474.996 gigawatt-hours of net electricity annually.

Under NEPRA’s decision, the tariff has been set at Rs17.3751 per unit for the first 12 years and Rs8.2686 per unit from the 13th to the 30th year. The resulting 30-year levelised tariff is Rs14.8507 per unit.

The approved tariff will remain applicable for 30 years from the commercial operation date under a Build-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) arrangement. The project’s loans are scheduled to be repaid during the first 12 years.

Mira Power Limited is a subsidiary of South Korea’s Korea South-East Power Company (KOEN). KOEN holds a 76% stake in the project, while DL Holdings owns 18% and Lotte Engineering & Construction holds 6%.

According to Business Recorder, NEPRA had approved a levelised tariff of 9.0241 US cents per kilowatt-hour for the project in 2015. Subsequent changes in the exchange rate, construction delays and other factors led to requests for tariff revisions.

The project also faced delays during construction due to force majeure events, resulting in extensions to the construction period and claims for additional costs.

NEPRA Member Tariff and Finance Amina Ahmed, in her additional note, disagreed with certain exchange-rate adjustments and pointed out that similar foreign-exchange adjustments had been allowed in some previous tariff decisions.