Energy Crisis of Pakistan and its solution (1/2)

Energy crisis is any great shortfall in the supply of energy to an economy. This may include the shortage of oil, gas, electricity or any other natural resources. Energy plays a very important and vital role in the socio-economic development of a country. Energy is used by the agriculture, industrial, defense forces and on the other hand normal citizens are its domestic users. The short fall of energy not only affects the lives of the common people, but also our industry, commerce and defense sector, therefore can be safely termed as national security concern.

The reason for this shortage is many and all these can be solved by taking responsibilities and giving awareness to the illiterate public of our country. The main reason of this crisis is the high population growth rate which we have. The more population means that more energy resources will be needed. To meet this requirement of this increasing population is a difficult task for the government. Pakistan started with the population of roughly 40 million in 1947 and now after 65 years we have our population touching 178 million in 2012, which means we have an average of 2.12% population growth every single year. Pakistan has one of the highest growth rates in the region in the year 2011 of 1.8% as compared to South Asia’s 1.44%, India’s 1.37%, Bangladesh’s 1.2% and World’s 1.15%. Awareness has to be given to the illiterate public to make sure that we reduce our population growth rate.

The other reasons which become the factor of these shortages include aging of the equipment, unable to meeting the demands of new industries, high international market value of the fuel, wastage of energy and mismanagement of energy resources etc. We may observe in the big cities like Karachi and Lahore that the market places open after noon and they sit in their shops till late night. They use a lot of electricity after sunset. People should wake up early, do their business in the day light and spend some time with their families in the evening. This would reduce the huge requirement for electric supply. We can use this saved electricity in other sectors avoiding load shedding.

The government has also done a lot of work since our independence in the field of energy. WAPDA was created in 1959, before that energy was supplied by companies on regional basis. In 1959, the power generation capacity was 119 MW only. When WAPDA came into picture, by 1964-65 the electricity generation capacity rose to 636 MW in first 5 years of WAPDA’s operation. In 1970s, the capacity increased to 3000 MW with commissioning of Mangla and Tarbela dam. In 1990-91 the capacity was 9000 MW, but it was less than required, resulting in load shedding for long hours. In 1994, government invited IPPs to invest in power generation plants. They installed 6000 MW of generating capacity in a short span of time accounting for more than 30% of the installed generation capacity. As a result of IPPs, Pakistan once again turned into electricity surplus and even offered to export electricity to India. In 2002, national economy picked up and since then it has grown to an average of 5% for next 5-6 years. The demands of electricity increased, the country was once again facing serious energy shortages. The country is currently facing power shortage of approximately 5000 MW. Presently Pakistan has installed total capacity of 20190 MW, WAPDA’s share is 56.5%, IPPs share is 30.1%, Nuclear 2.4% and KESC 9.5%.

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