With huge resources, Pakistan can overcome power crisis

India and Bangladesh are also facing acute electricity shortfall.

LAHORE: The power crisis is not restricted to Pakistan, rather it is being faced by the whole South Asian region, but unfortunately it is outplayed by media. Loadshedding is done in the whole of India and Bangladesh but we seldom hear any cry from their media.

It is astonishing to note that India is facing a shortfall of 20,000 megawatts, which is met through loadshedding of 8 to 10 hours. Indians are very much aware of the shortage of electricity and they try to compromise with the situation and help their government, but this is not the case in Pakistan, where people get infuriated over outages and damage government property.

However, it is a fact that in India outages are done according to a schedule but in Pakistan things get worst due to unscheduled loadshedding.

The nature has given all resources to Pakistan for overcoming loadshedding and energy needs can easily be met in coming three to five years. However, this is not the case in India, where according to estimates the power shortfall will increase in the next 10 to 15 years.

India used to produce 65-68 per cent of electricity from thermal sources, 22 per cent from hydel means and around 10 per cent from nuclear and renewable sources. Despite constructing dams on Pakistan’s waters, still India does not have huge potential of producing hydropower.

At the same time, India’s energy needs are increasing by at least 10 per cent annually. According to the Central Electricity Authority of India, the power generation capacity in 2010-11 was 118,676MW against demand of 136,193MW, with a gap of 17,517MW. The deficit widened in the summer as power demand rose and the shortfall touched 20,000MW.

The situation of Bangladesh is no different, where per capita energy consumption is one of the lowest in the world at 136 kilowatt hours (kwh). Bangladesh has small reserves of oil and coal.

Bangladesh’s installed electricity generation capacity was 4.7 gigawatts in 2009, only three-fourth of which is considered to be available for consumption. Only 40% of the population has access to electricity and because of the huge gap in demand and supply, extensive loadshedding is carried out. A major hurdle in efficiently delivering power is the inefficient distribution system as around 30 per cent of the electricity is lost during transmission.

However, Pakistan is altogether different from both of these countries. It has enough potential of producing hydroelectric power, which is the cheapest source. Currently, it is producing 35 per cent of electricity from hydel resources and 65 per cent from oil and gas.

Fortunately, Pakistan has more than enough resources to produce hydropower. The government has already announced construction of a number of dams like Bhasha (4,500MW), Munda (740MW), Kurram Tangi (83MW) and Akhori (600MW). Other dams like Bunji (7,100MW), Dasu (4,320MW) and Golen Gol (106MW) have also a huge potential and will come in the national grid in coming years. These dams will also help to store huge quantity of water.

The government has also planned to use coal reserves for electricity production and in coming three to four years around 1,000MW will be produced from this resource. By and large, electricity production will increase and will easily meet power demand in the country.

At the same time, projects for gas import from neighbouring countries will end gas shortage for the power plants.

The writer is an employee of the National Transmission and Dispatch Company.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2012.