Energy crises in Pakistan and world

Energy crises in Pakistan and world

The growing menace of electricity and gas Load shedding, combines with constantly rising electricity and gas tariff has mushroomed into a national crises. It  is effecting the trade, industry, education, construction, health, agriculture and every other field of life instead of higher authorities claim that government is narrowing the gap between demand and supply  of electricity, but ground situation for energy is very discouraging. The  power  shortfall is crossing the figure of 5000 MW, unless immediate measure are launched on footing Pakistan would lead to even deeper crises.

Causes of energy shortfall

There are following causes for the energy short fall.

1. Failure of last regime to increase the electricity. It is the basic cause of energy shortfall the the military regime    has failed to increase the supply of energy to keep pace with the growing demand. While the installed capacity is increased only 12 % from 1999 to 2008 from 17400 to 19420 MW.
2. Underutilization of existing generating capacity. The hydral capacity goes dawn 60% in winter, but unfortunately the thermal has also declined sharply thus raising the demand and supply gap near about 5000 MW.
3. Circular debits. One of the big problems in thermal energy shortfall is the circular debit. From 2007 the government has not paid the compensation to the companies which was for the consumers and power companies has failed to pay the cast to the oil companies  reducing their liquidity for furnace oil import, presently the power companies are near about 100 billion debit to oil and gas companies.
4. Repeated cut in Public sector development. The cut in PSDP results in shortage of energy , a report shows that in 208 billion rupees were  approved for Diamer Basha dam by the national economic  council(NEC) and government reduce it by 100 billion only, the government has delayed the exploration of Thar Coal project ,inspite of the repeated demands for funds allocation for the said project by Summar Mumbark Mand. Many other projects regarding energy production are suffering from haltage. All these have resulted in  intensifying  the present energy crises .

Other factors including the lion loss which are 8 to 10 % in the most countries but in Pakistan lion loss are 20 %. Thefting of electricity include in factor which are resulted in energy shortfall. Another factor is the wastage of energy by the industry, industries waste 30 % of the energy by the utilization of less efficient machines. Another factor is the over use of energy by the transport sector. This sector uses 28 % of the total energy. This wastage of energy is by the use of old improperly tuned engine. Another  is the wastage of the energy is domestic wastage this is about 45 % of the total electricity. Corruption and lack of political will  in the concerned department is also one of the factor the responsible for the energy crises.

Effect of the energy crunch

Effect of the energy crunch

Bad effect on routine life

Energy crises. effects badly on routine life, in Pakistan it load shedding is about 8 to 12 hours in cities and  in rural areas it is 12 to 18 hours , this load shedding  effects badly the domestic life, hospitals, colleges and industry. Industrial units have been closed , due to this unemployment directly increases and reduces the GDP, buying capacity of peoples, reduces,

Rise in the price of commodities. Markets close early due to load shedding , production cost of the commodities increases.

Agriculture. The agricultural land  that depends on tube well its yielding capacity sharply decreases  because due to load shedding tube wells can’t run and the enough water can not be provided to the land.

Strikes and agitation. The angry people due to load shedding, comes on roads and destroys the governmental installations.

Measures to recover the energy crises

Three kinds of measures can be taken, which are Immediate measures, Mid term measure and long term measures.

In immediate measure first of all the problem of circular debt should be resolved, in order to enable the power companies to clear their debts. Secondly the  electricity from the Tajikistan and  Iran should be agreed and both countries should be connected to the national grid station. Pak Iran gas pipe line project should be completed on earliest basis.

Mid term plans

First the gas and inefficient WAPDA plants should be replaced by more efficient and combined cycle plant.  Modernization of transmission and distribution system is  necessary. The expenditure of updating over electricity system could be recovered in only three years through savings from the line loss.

Long term Planes.

Dams Construction. The longer term solution of energy crises will be to restore the hydro thermal mix to 60:40 are at least 50:50 in the coming five years.  According to world report Pakistan can create above 50000 MW through water. The previous WAPDA Chief said that Pakistan could produce one 100000 MW from water. There is a need of building Kala Bagh Dam of 4500 MW, Basha Dam 4200 MW, Neelum Jahlem 996 MW, extention of Terbala Dam 960 MW,  Suki Kinari 840 MW, Munda Dam 700 MW, etc.

Gas  Exploration. Licenesses should be issued to foreign and local exploration companies. As  there is a high untapped gas capacity in Pakistan. On 18^th of June a well near Mianwali Punjab started gas. It is considerd to be the lagre well in the subcontinent.  There new well in karak, one in Sindh  and one in sui discovered. Such more wells are needed to be explored to meet out the energy needs of the country.

Coal. Pakistan has the second largest coal deposits in the world that I.e.185 billion metric tons, most of it is in Thar, Sindh. The initiative being taken by government to facilitate Dr. Saumar Mubark mand,s step of gasification and then turning this coal into electrical energy, must be implemented on larger scale, once his first experiment is succeeded. We can produce 50000 MW electricity from Thar Coal for the coming 200 years.

Other sources can be wind energy, solar energy can be produced in Pakistan and world to coop the energy crises.