Pakistan

4000 mw power shortage: Pepco

Express April 17, 2010

LAHORE: Long hours of loadshedding are adding to public anxiety. Total power generation, according to Pepco, was 10306 megawatts while demand stood at more than 15000 megawatts on Saturday.

From Hydel power projects, the energy generated is nearly 3000 megawatts, from IPPs 5000 megawatts and thermal power projects nearly 3000.

Cities are suffering from more than 12 hours of power cuts, despite announcements from Pepco that there would be 9 hours only. In smaller cities and rural areas, the blackouts are going up to 20 hours.

COMMENTS (3)

Energy Technologist | 14 years ago | Reply There have been alot of talk. From hydro to wind to wave. The problem with pakistan is that, none of these options are going to work. Pakistan is a small country compared to its population. hydro dams aside from being expensive in an effectively bankrupt country, drown large amounts of precious land, so Pakistan can not meet all of its energy needs by hydro generation. wind, solar and wave technologies are not proven and are expensive toys which hardly contribute a few percentage of power demands in the most rich and technologically superior countries so Pakistan should not gamble on these toys and spend its precious money on them. Coal power plants are a very attractive option, since pakistan has coal reserves to provide its energy needs for several dozen years, but they are dirty and generally any kind of power plants are not cheap. A 1,000 MW plant costs upwards of a billion euroes, and that is only the price of the plant and does not include a billion dollar more needed to develop a large enough mine to feed coal for the plant. Nuclear plants cost several times more and can cost upto 10 billion dollars for a 1,200 MWh. Pakistan does not have the technology to make nuclear power plant and currently no other country also wants to sell nuclear plants to Pakistan due to terrorism problem. Pakistan as of now is short by 6,000 MW and as the population grows and people’s expectations shoot up and half of Pakistan that is right now not connected to electric grid, become connected, You can imagine how many plants Pakistan has to make. Also it takes anywhere between 4 years for a small coal plant to 12 years for a large dam or nuclear plant to be built. Right now facilities like airconditioners and computers are used by less than 10% of pakistan and most of the economy is based on ancient agricultural techniques. If pakistan is ever to become modern and industrialized then it needs, at least 1 Kilowatt hour capacity for every person. With a current estimated population of 180 million that comes to 180 thousand Megawatt hour capacity. Pakistan has now just 20 thousand. With growing population Pakistan would need more than 360 thousand MWh of energy by 2050, when Pakistan’s population hits 360 million. So what is the solution. Pakistan does not have money and technology to develop its own plants. Independent power producers and private generating units are also not a long term option as they are thieves selling the same electricity in Pakistan for up to 55 US cents per kilowatt hour as compared to 12 cents in Canada and United States, under the pretext of investment in a risky terrorist infested country. Only one option remains, which is fortunately for Pakistan is both very cheap and reliable as well as least time consuming. The option has only one glitch, and that is, it will accompany the wrath of USA. That option is Iran. Iran can provide Pakistan with almost unlimited amount of natural gas which is much cheaper than the prevailing LNG prices in the world. Also Iran has a very developed electricity generation system and has offered Pakistan to meet the entire Pakistani shortage of electricity by offering the subsidized rate of 11 cents per kilowatt hour. Iran has even offered to build the entire transmission lines to Pakistan entirely with its own money and expertise on a record time of 14 months. If Pakistan just says ok. there will be no load shedding by the next summer. It is a very brilliant option both economically as well as security wise. Economically Pakistan will get as much power as it needs comparatively cheaply, and can spend its little money on developing industries and other needed infra structure instead of building power plants. And since Pakistan is going to be dealing with a government that is the brotherly government of Iran, Pakistan will no more need to play a slave to IPP’s. These kind of arrangements are immensely successful and promote peace and prosperity, for example almost all of the countries in continental Europe buy their power from France and Germany. But alas our leaders are too afraid of US. They have not learnt anything from Turkey which is in a similar situation to Pakistan being an American client. But Turkey despite being a client has defined its red lines with USA regarding its national security. So Turkey buys both gas and electricity from Iran, and Americans understand that Turkish people will not listen to them in these regards unless USA could satisfy their energy needs instead of Iran. But since USA can not even satisfy its own energy needs and has to import energy itself then Turks buy cheap energy from Iran. Pakistan could do the same if it had the guts to tell Americans that either they should meet the national energy needs by the next summer or that Iranians will be invited to take care of our problem. It is a choice Pakistan has to make today and not tomorrow. Iran is pakistan’s only option. And pakistan is lucky that its only option is in the lap of a brotherly country which is not only trustworhty but also eagerly willing to help out. Pakistan should not die of energy starvation while its brother is willing to feed it.

M.AKRAM NIAZI | 14 years ago | Reply NWFP and Sindh are responsible for shortage of electricity and water. Disease of Provincialism in Politicians of NWFP and Sindh is mainly responsible for power shortage mayhem and the resultant chaos in the society due to tormenting blackouts and long power outrages. Importance of Electricity Versus Wastage of Water for Feudals. Why opposition on generation of electricity by Kalabagh Dam in which no water is wasted but provide option of safe storage of water for future use. Electricity is the need of each and every minute and moment of human life, people can not tolerate outage of electricity for one hour while agriculture land can tolerate need of water even many weeks, but why importance to agriculture of few feudals and no importance to electricity which is the need of each and every citizens • Children weeps in the night due to high temperature and mosquitoes bite due to outage of electricity, • Students can not study in night due to outage of electricity. • Industry can not run without electricity. • Machinery can not run without electricity. • Surgeons can not operate without electricity. • A patient on life machine can not survive without electricity. • Even in agriculture can not use Tubewell without electricity. • Fertilizer can not be manufactured without electricity. • Pesticide can not be manufactured without electricity. • Sugar Mills,Cotton Mills,Flour Mills,Rice Mills can not run without electricity. Above points clearly indicates that use of water for generation of electricity is 1000 times better than wastage of water on land or in sea for few feudals, because water wasted in land or sea is not recoverable but water use for generation of electricity in Kalabagh Dam will be available for use for agriculture and Industry as it was suitable before generation of electricity and there will be no wastage of water. From all above points it is clear that NWFP and Sindh who are opposing the generation of electricity and preservation and safe storage of water in Kalabagh dam are criminals of humanity as well as of World. VICTIMIZATION OF RIVER INDUS BY Govt of SINDH On one side Sindh is wasting River Indus water in sea but on other side making objection on use of water by other provinces for agriculture (Chasma Jehlum Link Canal) and Kalabagh dams for electricity generation. On one side Sindh is calcimining that there is rise of sea level and problem of land erosion and other side also advocating wastage of 10 million Acre feet water in sea to further raise the level of sea and will cause more land erosion. On one side Sindh is saying there is water logging and salinity problem in Thatta and Badin and on other side itself spreading and aggravating these problems with wastage of huge (13 Million Acres feet= 0NE CRORE Thirty Laks Acre Feet Water) Quantity of water for few thousands Acres of land in Thatta and Badin On one side Sindh is claiming that there is rise of sea level due to global warming and other side also advocating generation of electricity from Thar coal which is the most polluted source of energy and main culprit of global warming and will pollute all land, air and water resources of Pakistan including River Indus. On one side Sindh is cultivating Rice crop in desert and there is always increase in agriculture out put in the end of year but on other side always crying that there is shortage of water while infact all rivers of Pakistan including Hub River of Balouchistan goes down towards Sindh and their is contineously increase in flow of water year by year. On one side Sindh always demanding fresh water but itself doing nothing for prevention of pollution and preservation of water. no single treatment plant is there, no desalination plant is there, on the contrary polluting river Indus water with salt mines and sea water and many lakes have been converted into useless lakes due to pollution. On one side Sindh makes claim on whole water of Indus but on other side victimizing this river by polluting with sea water,factories wastage and fertilizer, infact Indus water near Thatta and Badin is so much polluted and poisioned in Sindh that no one can use that for any purpose. On one side Sindh show they love river Indus,but on other side by wasting its water in sea and opposing any development project on River Indus, Province of Sindh is converting to River Indus into a Nullah and making this river useless for People of Pakistan and instead of preventing its wastage and diverting towards Karachi and coast of Makran,Sindh is wasting River Indus in the sea. As Sindh,Balochistan and Pukhtunkhwa are against Kalabagh Dam because as per Sindh LOGIC Thar Coal is better than Kalabagh as Kalabagh will emmit BLACK SMOKE and Thar Coal will emmit fresh air full of Oxygen. And as per Balouchistan Vision GAS and coal extracted from Balouchistan are one of the most clean source of energy and Kalabagh will pollute air and land resouces and people will drown in Kalabagh and no one is dying in the coal caves of Balochistan. And as per Frontier wisdom Royalty of Tarballa is so important that Pakistan can be broken for that but Kalabgh dam is not good looking as it is in Punjab. All provinces want Provincial autonomy but Punjab should open or close its canals , IRRIGATE ITS LAND AND construct Dams as per desire of other provinces and after asking from other provinces Because it is necessary for unity and prosperity of Pakistan as when there will be no agriculture,no electricity and no water then Pakistan will be more united and more prosperous. M.AKRAM NIAZI

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