Conservation is the name of the game
Energy shortfall cannot be overcome just by efforts of government and gas utilities
PHOTO COURTESY: UN
KARACHI:
“Awareness is the greatest agent for change” – Eckhart Tolle. She is just 16 but a month ago when she spoke to the world leaders, they had no choice but to listen to her stinging speech.
Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg chided the world leaders for not doing enough to address the issue of climate change. Thunberg’s speech was not matched by action right away from all the world leaders but it did make them sit up and take notice of the dire state of things.
The moral of the story: Awareness, not intelligence, is what will create a sustainable planet. In Pakistan, we face a similar situation today. As long as there was enough supply of natural gas, we all took this clean and affordable fuel for granted. Turn off the tap and you would have an inexhaustible supply of gas. How did we arrive at a situation when the tap started drying up and the gulf in demand and supply of gas kept on widening? For that we need to have a quick glance at Pakistan’s gas sector.
Project worth over Rs180bn planned for water conservation
The country’s gas downstream sector is well established with an extensive infrastructure of 160,000km long pipeline network offering gas to a consumer base of approximately 9.5 million consumers.
Since 2001, Pakistan witnessed an extraordinary growth in sales volume till 2016. This growth was a result of the commercialisation of the discoveries made in 1990s. Along with it, the expansion of the distribution network and an increase in domestic consumers drove up demand for natural gas.
Growth in gas sales stagnated around 2008, primarily due to shortage of gas supply owing to depleting natural gas resources and rapid urbanisation. This resulted in the creation of natural gas demand-supply gap of approximately two billion cubic feet per day. The widening gap compelled all the stakeholders to sit and take notice of the situation since the future projections too looked bleak.
Gas utility companies focus their attention on bridging the demand-supply gap by augmenting their pipeline network and rehabilitating age-old lines. The energy shortfall cannot be overcome just by the part played by the government and the gas utilities that come under its umbrella. Awareness about conserving gas needs to be created the way Thunberg and thousands of young climate change protesters recently did, so that the stakeholders are motivated enough to reverse the situation.
With this primary objective in mind, gas utilities including Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) undertake natural gas conservation campaigns by targeting customers through print, electronic and social media. Since assuming power, the government of Pakistan has shown keen interest in energy conservation as a sure-fire solution to overcome energy crisis in the country. SSGC’s efforts are reinforced by the government directives to propagate the message of conservation to its customers through mass media campaigns.
It would have been easy for SSGC to run its conservation campaigns by simply ‘instructing’ the customers to conserve natural gas in a now-or-never scenario. That, however, would not have been a very pragmatic approach. SSGC’s campaign is fundamentally an elaborate public service communication exercise.
No-wastage lifestyle
SSGC runs several mass media customer campaigns around the year that serve as effective public service tools. They include anti-gas theft, leakages and of course the conservation campaign itself. Interestingly, the common thread that runs around each campaign is that of gas conservation. Why? Simply because there is a lot of wastage going on that needs to be addressed.
Take the phenomenon of gas theft, one of the major causes behind Unaccounted-for-Gas (UFG) for instance. Over the last several years, UFG or line losses have severely impacted the gas utility companies’ profitability. Theft alone contributes to 51% of line losses.
Bolstered by Gas (Theft and Recovery) Act, SSGC undertook Operation Grift - a well-organised on-ground campaign - a few years back, aimed at flushing out gas theft from its franchise areas. Gas saved as a result of claims raised against the miscreants help to improve UFG figures and is one of the steps taken by the company to put a lid on wastage.
Similarly, through its leakage campaigns, the company stresses on its customers to report gas leakage at their homes as well as in their neighbourhood for controlling gas wastage and avoiding safety hazards. Operation Grift continues with some major prosecution successes propelled by advertisement campaigns that reinforce anti-gas theft messages spiced up by penalties for each type of pilferage.
Clean and green initiative: Senate panel gears up efforts for environment conservation
Managing bills better
While alerting the customers to use gas safely and wisely, SSGC’s conservation campaigns also emphasise on the message that adopting a no-wastage lifestyle would also mean that their gas bills would be better managed.
Useful tips such as switching off stoves when not cooking, using pressure cookers and keeping flame within the base of utensils are highlighted. Customers are also advised to use PSQCA-approved appliances and fittings and ensure periodic maintenance of the appliances. These steps ensure a win-win situation for both a gas company and the customers since by choosing to save rather than waste; the latter will have a better control over their gas bills.
As part of its mass contact drive, the company’s corporate communication department has only recently started a back-to-basics programme whereby its team members hold sessions in local schools for the school students to spread message related to gas conservation in our daily lives. The premise behind such sessions is not just to make the students gas wise, but to stress on them to pass on the information to their parents. Like Greta Thunberg, students can compellingly emphasise on their adults to practice what the gas company would be focusing on its presentations.
Of late, the company has been stressing especially in its talks with the school students in the back-to-basics sessions as well as in its social media pages, the importance of ensuring a blue flame when cooking. SSGC underlines the fact that a blue flame colour means complete combustion while red or yellow flame colour implies incomplete combustion, accumulated soot, serious safety hazard and wasted gas.
Back when we were consuming gas with no fear ever of running out of it, we did not foresee a future when demand for gas will outstrip supply. We can all reverse the situation if we do our bit to conserve gas. It is a tough call but a collective effort will ensure a win-win situation.
The writer is general manager of corporate communications at SSGC
Published in The Express Tribune, November 25th, 2019.
“Awareness is the greatest agent for change” – Eckhart Tolle. She is just 16 but a month ago when she spoke to the world leaders, they had no choice but to listen to her stinging speech.
Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg chided the world leaders for not doing enough to address the issue of climate change. Thunberg’s speech was not matched by action right away from all the world leaders but it did make them sit up and take notice of the dire state of things.
The moral of the story: Awareness, not intelligence, is what will create a sustainable planet. In Pakistan, we face a similar situation today. As long as there was enough supply of natural gas, we all took this clean and affordable fuel for granted. Turn off the tap and you would have an inexhaustible supply of gas. How did we arrive at a situation when the tap started drying up and the gulf in demand and supply of gas kept on widening? For that we need to have a quick glance at Pakistan’s gas sector.
Project worth over Rs180bn planned for water conservation
The country’s gas downstream sector is well established with an extensive infrastructure of 160,000km long pipeline network offering gas to a consumer base of approximately 9.5 million consumers.
Since 2001, Pakistan witnessed an extraordinary growth in sales volume till 2016. This growth was a result of the commercialisation of the discoveries made in 1990s. Along with it, the expansion of the distribution network and an increase in domestic consumers drove up demand for natural gas.
Growth in gas sales stagnated around 2008, primarily due to shortage of gas supply owing to depleting natural gas resources and rapid urbanisation. This resulted in the creation of natural gas demand-supply gap of approximately two billion cubic feet per day. The widening gap compelled all the stakeholders to sit and take notice of the situation since the future projections too looked bleak.
Gas utility companies focus their attention on bridging the demand-supply gap by augmenting their pipeline network and rehabilitating age-old lines. The energy shortfall cannot be overcome just by the part played by the government and the gas utilities that come under its umbrella. Awareness about conserving gas needs to be created the way Thunberg and thousands of young climate change protesters recently did, so that the stakeholders are motivated enough to reverse the situation.
With this primary objective in mind, gas utilities including Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) undertake natural gas conservation campaigns by targeting customers through print, electronic and social media. Since assuming power, the government of Pakistan has shown keen interest in energy conservation as a sure-fire solution to overcome energy crisis in the country. SSGC’s efforts are reinforced by the government directives to propagate the message of conservation to its customers through mass media campaigns.
It would have been easy for SSGC to run its conservation campaigns by simply ‘instructing’ the customers to conserve natural gas in a now-or-never scenario. That, however, would not have been a very pragmatic approach. SSGC’s campaign is fundamentally an elaborate public service communication exercise.
No-wastage lifestyle
SSGC runs several mass media customer campaigns around the year that serve as effective public service tools. They include anti-gas theft, leakages and of course the conservation campaign itself. Interestingly, the common thread that runs around each campaign is that of gas conservation. Why? Simply because there is a lot of wastage going on that needs to be addressed.
Take the phenomenon of gas theft, one of the major causes behind Unaccounted-for-Gas (UFG) for instance. Over the last several years, UFG or line losses have severely impacted the gas utility companies’ profitability. Theft alone contributes to 51% of line losses.
Bolstered by Gas (Theft and Recovery) Act, SSGC undertook Operation Grift - a well-organised on-ground campaign - a few years back, aimed at flushing out gas theft from its franchise areas. Gas saved as a result of claims raised against the miscreants help to improve UFG figures and is one of the steps taken by the company to put a lid on wastage.
Similarly, through its leakage campaigns, the company stresses on its customers to report gas leakage at their homes as well as in their neighbourhood for controlling gas wastage and avoiding safety hazards. Operation Grift continues with some major prosecution successes propelled by advertisement campaigns that reinforce anti-gas theft messages spiced up by penalties for each type of pilferage.
Clean and green initiative: Senate panel gears up efforts for environment conservation
Managing bills better
While alerting the customers to use gas safely and wisely, SSGC’s conservation campaigns also emphasise on the message that adopting a no-wastage lifestyle would also mean that their gas bills would be better managed.
Useful tips such as switching off stoves when not cooking, using pressure cookers and keeping flame within the base of utensils are highlighted. Customers are also advised to use PSQCA-approved appliances and fittings and ensure periodic maintenance of the appliances. These steps ensure a win-win situation for both a gas company and the customers since by choosing to save rather than waste; the latter will have a better control over their gas bills.
As part of its mass contact drive, the company’s corporate communication department has only recently started a back-to-basics programme whereby its team members hold sessions in local schools for the school students to spread message related to gas conservation in our daily lives. The premise behind such sessions is not just to make the students gas wise, but to stress on them to pass on the information to their parents. Like Greta Thunberg, students can compellingly emphasise on their adults to practice what the gas company would be focusing on its presentations.
Of late, the company has been stressing especially in its talks with the school students in the back-to-basics sessions as well as in its social media pages, the importance of ensuring a blue flame when cooking. SSGC underlines the fact that a blue flame colour means complete combustion while red or yellow flame colour implies incomplete combustion, accumulated soot, serious safety hazard and wasted gas.
Back when we were consuming gas with no fear ever of running out of it, we did not foresee a future when demand for gas will outstrip supply. We can all reverse the situation if we do our bit to conserve gas. It is a tough call but a collective effort will ensure a win-win situation.
The writer is general manager of corporate communications at SSGC
Published in The Express Tribune, November 25th, 2019.