KARACHI:
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had promised to end load shedding in the country by May 1. Unfortunately, citizens were given no respite even during the Eid holidays as many areas suffered from 10 to 12 hours of load-shedding. Officials claim that the reason for the shortage of electricity has to do with the unavailability of required fuel for power generation and the non-maintenance of some power plants. But what are the true facts?
During 2013 to 2018, without necessity, a large number of thermal power stations were built, taking the installed capacity to 35,735MW when the maximum demand was 23,000MW. This capacity could not be utilised because the needed transmission infrastructure was not built. What people don’t realise is that this is a very serious shortcoming that is constantly being undermined by the authorities. When we, WAPDA engineers, were building the country’s power system back in 1958, we built and completed the transmission lines and grid stations before commissioning the Warsak and Multan power stations. The same procedure was carried out for the Mangla and the Tarbela power stations.
The other major problem in the power sector is circular debt. Approximately 17,276MW is being produced by independent power producers. They have to be paid the capacity charges even if their power is not utilised. Under the PPP government’s 1984 Power Policy, these independent producers have been given extraordinarily generous terms. Billions of rupees are constantly being lost because of this.
The only solution to the load-shedding conundrum is to construct transmission infrastructure without further delay. This will also enable expanding the power sector to neglected and underdeveloped areas.
Imtiaz Ali Qazilbash
Islamabad
Published in The Express Tribune, May 11th, 2022.
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