The latest crisis that has Pakistani’s from all walks of life up in arms is the lack of electrical power throughout the country. While rolling blackouts or load shedding as its locally known has always been a staple of daily life in Pakistan, the problem has become acute in the last couple of years. In the second half of December, the situation got so bad that WAPDA & KESC (power generation entities in Pakistan) resorted to draconian levels of load shedding. The power cuts during this time amounted to 20-22 hours a day in most small cities and even cities like Karachi were seeing 18+ hours of load shedding.
Notwithstanding the systemic issues such as the failure to build new dams and previous Government’s inability to add even a single megawatt of new power to the grid during 9 years of its rule, it seems that the present crisis is a result of bad management and the lack of foresight. The total installed capacity of WAPDA and KESC totals around 19,500 megawatts. Almost two third of this power comes from thermal power plants (fossil fuels), one third is generated by water and about 2% comes from nuclear power plants.
The demand for electricity in Pakistan during the winter months actually goes down and this winter has not been an exception. Throughout the month of December, the electricity consumption in Pakistan hovered around 11,000 MW, down from the peak levels of 17,500 MW seen in summer. This demand was well within the installed capacity of WAPDA & KESC yet they were only generating a meager one third (6500MW) of their maximum capacity during this period leaving a huge gap between supply and demand. Their are two main reasons for this:
1. The water flow from all major dams was halted starting mid December to allow the annual cleaning of canals in January. This action effectively took all the hydro power off line.
2. The thermal power plants were working far below their potential due to the lack of money caused by the circular debt between various government agencies reaching a staggering 400 billion Rupees.
None of these issues could have possibly come as a surprise to the present government yet they choose to do nothing until violent anti government protests erupted in all major cities. A couple of days ago the President of Pakistan finally convened a summit of all stakeholders and since then the situation has improved somewhat but this fiasco provides another example of the misplaced priorities of our democratically elected leaders.
Instead of issuing stamps and coins bearing Benazir’s logo and dedicating existing airports to her name, they should focus on the plight of everyday people and try to make their lives a little bit better. Everyone understands that Pakistan is facing serious problems requiring long term solutions and the present government can’t be expected to make significant headway in the short term, yet there are things where it can make a difference. Eliminating load shedding during the winter months could just be one of them.
Photo Credits: Mona Akmal for title photo
Similar Posts at ATP:
1. What is Wrong with KESC
2. The Daredevil Electricians of Pakistan
3. Harnessing Wind energy in Baldia Town
4. KESC, Karachi and the Power Outages
5. More Crisis in Pakistan – Electricity, Flour, Sugar, Gas – What is the way out?
6. Conservation – bijli bachaao muhim
7. andher nagri
The energy crisis that Pakistan is facing these days is not only because of the futile policies and ignorance of the past governments but also because of the narrow mindedness of our public. Instead of making new dams to fulfill the growing energy needs, our public started the drama of “Opposing Kalabagh Dam” for no valid reasons. No province is going to drown and no province is going to become “Dry” by building this dam. Please stop harming Pakistan for your vested interests and pave the way for the development of new dams including Kalabagh dam. Other wise, get ready for a time when electricity will be just a dream!!!
Chinese language has the same word for both “problem” and “opportunity”. A good metaphor for professional and entrepreneurial class in Pakistan to turn the electricity crisis into an opportunity for themselves.
Again, I say “Go green, do good and do well”.
http://www.riazhaq.com/2008/09/tackling-pakistans- electricity-crisis.html
It is time for Pakistanis to light candles rather than continue to curse the darkness or be selfish by just looking out for themselves by buying diesel generators (for those who can afford it). There are an increasing number of renewable energy options that neighborhoods, communities and towns can explore by pooling their resources to deal with the electricity crisis in an environmentally friendly way.
To read more, please visit: http://www.riazhaq.com/2008/09/tackling-pakistans- electricity-crisis.html
Abdul Hai Sahab, Your blaming AQ Khan for the power crisis in Pakistan is totally misplaced. AQ Khan is not the architect of Pakistan’s nuclear policy, he just implemented what the politicians sought out to do. It was Bhutto who decided to go nuclear and brought in AQ KHan after India went nuclear in 1974. All subsequent govts including military and political backed this policy. Pakistan does have a peaceful nuclear program as well, and they have commissioned atleast 2 nuclear power plants of 350 MW each. More are on the way, though it can be argued that this program could have been at a more advanced stage if we hadn’t gone nuclear.
Our current crisis is more a result of lack of planning and adhocism which is a national virtue and prevalent in every walk of national life. We have repeatedly failed to set aside resources for education, health, and infrastructure development and the mess that we are seeing today is a direct result of all that. As so accurately pointed out by the author here, the previous govt had the fiscal and policy space and the time (over 8 years) to change things, but they did not focus on energy issues. It is also not just electricity now, but a country so rich in natural gas until now is suddenly plagued with gas shortages. With no new projects coming on line in the near future, and the country in an absolute financial mess, this is only bound to worsen in the coming days.
AQKhan and Electricity Shortage
The average Pakistani has been hoodwinked by the media and the politicians about the contribution of Abdul Qadeer Khan to the Pakistan. He is the metallurgist who stole plans from Holland and were sucessful in getting a nuclear bomb made in Pakistan. The so called first Muslim nuclear bomb. In the process he also transmitted bomb making techniques to rogue states Nrth Korea and Libya for personal gain. He lived lavishly in Islamabad. All the material for his house onstruction was imported from overseas.
What the average person in Pakistan does not know of the price paid by Pakistanis for this bomb. Due to this bomb making aventure all civilian nuclear power plant construction in Pakistan stopped since 1979. Pakistan was left with a single civilan commercial nuclear power plant in Karachi with a meagre capacity of 150 MW. The west refused to provide nuclear technology to Pakistan. Pakistani scientists and enginees trained for nuclear power were frustated and left Pakistan.
In contrast, South Korea decided to go for civilan nuclear power and since 1979, has built 18 nuclear power plants with a combined capacity of over 20000 MW. This enabled South Korea to use the electrical energy for productive use. South Korea is considered a newly developed nation with 100 percent literacy, exporting cars, color TVs, and computers. South Korea is militarily also very strong and build a bomb any time within a matter of months since it has the infrastructure.
Pakistan on the other hand is left with a traitor Abdul Qadeer Khan who is providing trade secrets to the media. The average man is suffereing the electrical power shortage in the form of load shedding. The industry is running under capacity due to load shedding. Inspite of a talented pool of engineers and scientists, the international companies have shied away from investing in Pakistan.
Thank you AQ Khan for making all this happen.