NEPRA Tariff Petitions for Suki Kinari and Sapphire Wind Explained
NEPRA admitted tariff petitions for 884 MW Suki Kinari and 52.8 MW Sapphire Wind. See what each plant asks, the hearing dates and how to follow the decision.
Short answer: NEPRA admitted two power plant tariff petitions in September 2026. SK Hydro asks to change the tariff of the 884 MW Suki Kinari hydropower project, with a revised construction cost of $1,285.692 million. Sapphire Wind Power asks to adjust three tariff components of its 52.8 MW wind plant. NEPRA's notices set hearings for 1 October and 5 October 2026, and we found no decision on its website yet.
A tariff is the price a power plant is paid for each unit of electricity it sells. NEPRA, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority, approves it. Whatever a plant is allowed to charge ends up in the cost of power that the country buys, so these petitions are worth reading even if they look technical.
We opened NEPRA's news page on 11 October 2026 and read the two admission notices, the petition summaries inside them and the "list of issues" NEPRA published for Suki Kinari. These are requests from the companies. NEPRA has not approved any of them in the papers we read.
Suki Kinari asks NEPRA to raise its construction cost and capacity
SK Hydro (Pvt.) Ltd runs the Suki Kinari Hydropower Project. It has asked NEPRA to modify its tariff because of design changes, a diverted highway, security costs and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The notice lists the requested costs in millions of US dollars and Pakistani rupees.
| Item in the Suki Kinari petition | US$ million | Rs million |
|---|---|---|
| Revised EPC (construction) cost | 1,285.692 | - |
| Shunt reactors, with consultancy fee | 11.372 | 915.180 |
| Security infrastructure, construction period | - | 918.635 |
| COVID-19 anti-epidemic cost | 30.000 | - |
| Acceleration, civil works | 15.500 | - |
| Acceleration, mechanical and electrical installation | 2.820 | - |
| Acceleration, wet testing of complex | 1.742 | 243.672 |
EPC means engineering, procurement and construction. The notice says the revised EPC figure includes a net reduction of $28.6 million from design changes and an extra $28.99 million for the diversion of the N-15 highway.
NEPRA's issues list shows what the Authority must decide
NEPRA published 18 issues for the Suki Kinari hearing. Each starts with "Whether" and asks if a claim is justified. They include the design changes, the highway diversion, security costs during construction and operation, the water use charge and the 360-day interest convention.
- Contract capacity: from 861.548 MW to 875.160 MW, as installed capacity rises from 870 MW to 884 MW.
- Water use charge: from Rs 0.15 per kWh to Rs 0.425 per kWh.
- Security for the operation period: Rs 1,945.963 million plus Rs 39.964 million for consultancy.
- Insurance: a Sinosure cost based on a 7 per cent cap on total debt servicing, not on the assessed debt amount.
- Indexation: replace discontinued PICC indices with Pakistan Bureau of Statistics indices for Abbottabad.
The issues list is the best short summary of a petition. It is written in plain questions, and it shows which claims NEPRA treats as open.
Sapphire Wind asks to change three components of its tariff
Sapphire Wind Power Company Limited, a 52.8 MW plant, filed an application for adjustment of tariff components. The notice names three: operation and maintenance cost, return on equity and insurance. Each one changes how much the plant is paid, and how much of an exchange rate move reaches consumers.
| Component | What Sapphire Wind asks |
|---|---|
| Operation and maintenance | Fixed at Rs 5.0377 per kWh as a reference, indexed from the April to June 2025 quarter |
| Depreciation allowance | Rupee depreciation allowed only up to 70 per cent of the actual figure per year |
| Return on equity | Revised to 15.725 per cent, locked at the exchange rate on 10 October 2025 |
| Insurance | Paid at actual, or 0.4 per cent of the allowed EPC cost, whichever is lower |
The notice also says that if the rupee gains against the dollar, 100 per cent of that gain is passed on to consumers. That is the part that works in the consumer's favour. It is a request, not a ruling.
Both hearings have already been scheduled and the dates have passed
NEPRA's notice for Suki Kinari set the hearing for 1 October 2026 at 2:00 pm at NEPRA Head Office in Islamabad, with a Zoom link. The Sapphire Wind notice set 5 October 2026 at 2:00 pm on Zoom. Both dates are before 11 October, and we found no decision for either on NEPRA's site.
That does not mean nothing happened. NEPRA often reserves its decision after a hearing, and a determination can take weeks. We cannot say when it will arrive.
- Open nepra.org.pk and go to the News page.
- Find "Notice of Admission / Hearing" and note the plant's name and date.
- Open the petition and the "list of issues" if one is posted.
- Read the hearing date, the Zoom details and the Registrar's address.
- Watch the same page for the "Decision of the Authority".
The Suki Kinari notice says anyone affected can file an intervention request within seven days of the notice's publication, and any person can file comments in that window. The Sapphire Wind notice, as we read it, does not print that paragraph. Our guide on how to take part in a NEPRA hearing explains the process. For another tariff matter on the same page, see the Punjab hydropower tariff hearing on 20 October.
What the petitions mean for electricity consumers
A higher approved tariff for a plant generally raises the price the national grid pays for its power. The notices do not give a rupee figure for what it could add to a bill. So we do not calculate one, because the final amount depends on NEPRA's decision and many other costs.
What a reader can do is track the decision, and compare what was requested with what was approved. If an approved tariff is lower than the request, that gap is the amount NEPRA found unjustified. Bills are also affected by monthly fuel adjustments, covered in NEPRA's August fuel charge decision.
Common questions
What is the Suki Kinari hydropower project?
It is an 884 MW hydropower project run by SK Hydro (Pvt.) Ltd, which has asked NEPRA to modify its tariff. The petition lists a revised construction cost of $1,285.692 million.
When were the Suki Kinari and Sapphire Wind hearings?
NEPRA's notices set 1 October 2026 for Suki Kinari and 5 October 2026 for Sapphire Wind, both at 2:00 pm. We did not attend, and we cannot confirm that each hearing took place as scheduled.
Has NEPRA approved the new tariffs?
We found no decision for either plant on NEPRA's website on 11 October 2026. Both documents we read are the companies' requests.
What does Sapphire Wind want changed?
It asks for a fixed operation and maintenance component of Rs 5.0377 per kWh, a return on equity of 15.725 per cent locked at an October 2025 exchange rate, and a lower of actual or 0.4 per cent cap on insurance.
Can an ordinary consumer object to a tariff petition?
Yes. NEPRA's notices invite interested persons to file comments or an intervention request within seven days of publication. Write to the Registrar at registrar@nepra.org.pk.
Will these petitions raise my bill?
The notices do not say. The effect depends on NEPRA's decision and on how the cost is shared across all consumers.
How we verified this
What we checked, where we read it, and what we could not confirm.
We read NEPRA's news page (nepra.org.pk/news.php) on 11 October 2026, the Notice of Admission/Hearing for 884 MW Suki Kinari dated 10 September 2026, the NEPRA list of issues for that hearing, and the Notice of Admission/Hearing for 52.8 MW Sapphire Wind dated 29 September 2026. The notices are scanned images, so a digit could be misread. Check the figures against the PDFs before you use them in a filing.
About the author
Global Affairs & Political Economy Writer
Muhammad Hatim is a book lover who started writing because he enjoys it. At Pakistan Era he writes about international relations, geopolitics and the global economy, with a particular interest in South Asia and the forces behind current events.
