The annual Fog Follies

Fog has been a feature of the meteorology of large parts of Punjab probably from time immemorial, and it is only since man arrived on the scene and built roads and cities that it has been a problem, and a major problem at that. Over the weekend several flights have been cancelled to airports in southern Punjab because of either being completely fogged in or visibility of insufficient quality to make safe landings and takeoffs. Lahore has in large part been shut down by a major breakdown in the power transmission system which true to form tripped repeatedly on Friday 9^th December, leaving half of Pakistan’s second city powerless for five hours. Lahore was not alone in this and other parts of the province were similarly without watts in the wires.

This happens every year when the fog rolls in, with the same consequences and the same responses. All concerned point fingers at one another rather than seeking — and finding — a solution to a recurrent problem. The National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) and the Lahore Electric Supply company (LESCO) are as usual taking no responsibility for the outage and blaming each other for a well known technical problem that is fog related, or rather its Lahori iteration called ‘smog’ that is a combination of fog and pollutants, primarily from vehicle exhausts. This causes a buildup of carbon on the discs that are a part of the transmission lines that causes them to trip-out; leading to what can be a cascade effect as successive links in the transmission chain fail.

On this occasion the NTDC protection system worked, saving valuable equipment from damage and the system was restored by 11 a.m. on Friday, but the fundamental problem of an elderly and degraded system remains unaddressed. Although Lahore is the focus in this event there is a national deficit in the quality of power transmission linked to a long-term neglect and lack of investment. If Pakistan is going to progress and develop it needs to sorts its power problems fog or no fog. Get to it gentlemen.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 11^th, 2016.

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