Electricity crisis is a persistent issue in Pakistan. Currently we are having winter season so demand of electricity is low in comparison to other seasons and hence should have minimum power load shedding during this season.
The government has come up with various projects to enhance the generation of electricity in a bid to counter power crisis. But what government does not understand is that the production of electricity solely will not solve the power issue; transmission and distribution are equally significant in power supply. On the one hand, government is introducing different means to increase power generation including solar, hydro and nuclear resources; on the other hand, they absolutely neglect transmission and distribution area. So with no up-gradation of transformers and grid stations, usually a discrepancy is found in the grid which subsequently causes prolong power outage due to power tripping across country.
Recently, according to media reports, K-Electric has introduced transmission project under which transformers and grid stations will be upgraded to provide better power load management across the city. But the question arises how will this initiative impact the power load shedding? Power tripping and power breakdown occur due to several reasons; however, there are two basic causes. Firstly, the electric wire fails to tolerate the load coming from power station and secondly power theft due to illegal hook connections. Measures have already been adopted to curb power theft with the support of people in eradicating the menace of power theft by complaining against illegal usage of electricity in their areas. While to reduce power load, KE’s project is another stepping-stone for improvement in transmission. The success of this project will enable Karachiites to witness improved power transmission in coming days and hence we shall observe minimal load-shedding across city.
I believe that other state-run power utilities should also work on improving the transmission and distribution network across country by upgrading their power stations. However, consumers should also support the efforts of utility companies so that together we can avoid this crisis at large.
MADIHA AKHTAR
Karachi