Pakistan can get out of power crisis

We have resources to overcome power shortage

The power crisis is not local problem rather it is being faced by the whole region of South Asia. Load shedding is prevalent in the whole of India and Bangladesh but we seldom hear hue and cry from their media. It was really an amazing fact that India is facing shortfall of 20,000MW and this shortfall is met through load shedding of eight to 10 hours. Indians are aware of the shortage of electricity in their country and they try to compromise and help their government; but this is not the case in Pakistan.
Nature has given all resources to Pakistan for overcoming oad shedding and our energy needs could be easily met in the coming three to five years but this is not the case in India; where according to estimates the power shortfall would increase in the coming 10 to 15 years.
India used to produce 65-68 per cent of electricity from thermal sources, 22 per cent from hydel generation and around 10 per cent from nuclear and renewable resources. Despite constructing dams on our water still India does not have huge potential of producing hydel electricity.
India does not have a huge potential of producing hydel electricity and at the same time its energy needs are increasing at least 10 per cent annually. According to Central Electricity Authority (CEA) in India, the generation capacity in 2010-11 was 118,676 MW against the energy demand of 136,193 MW thus shortage of 17,517 MW. The shortage of electricity increased in the summer, when power demand rose and shortfall touched 20,000MW. This shortfall is overcome by eight to 10 hours of load shedding. Rural areas are the most severely affected. States periodically and chronically affected by load-shedding are Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. There is no way that India could overcome energy crisis in the coming ten years and it is forecasted this crisis would be further exacerbated.
The situation in Bangladesh is no different, where per capita energy consumption is one of the lowest (136 kWH) in the world. Bangladesh has small reserves of oil and coal. Its installed electric generation capacity was 4.7 GW in 2009; only three-fourth of which is considered to be available for use. Only 40 per cent of the population has access to electricity. Because of huge gap in demand and supply, extensive load shedding is carried. A major hurdle in efficiently delivering power is caused by inefficient distribution system. Around 30 per cent of power is lost during transmission.
Pakistan is altogether different from both of these countries. We have enough potential of producing electricity from hydel sources. Currently, we are producing 35 per cent of electricity from hydel and 65 from oil and gas. A number of dams like Bhasha (4,500MW), Munda (740MW), Kurram Tangi (83MW) and Akhori Dam (600MW) are already announced by the current government while other dams like Bunji (7,100MW), Dasu (4,320MW) and Golen Gol (106MW) have a massive potential of producing hydel generation and it would also come in national grid in the coming years. The government has also planned to use coal reserves for electricity production and in the coming three to four years around 1,000MW would also be produced from the coal projects. By and large, electricity production would increase and it could easily overcome the power demand in the country. At the same time, projects for importing gas from neighbouring countries would also end the gas shortage for the power plants. It is high time that we sit together and understand that in this time of crisis we have to overcome the problem through mutual understanding and cooperation.

The writer is an employee of NTDC/PEPCO