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Electricity shortage deepens energy crisis in Pakistan
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580
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Visits
580
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Visits
580
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April 29, 2011
Pakistanis are facing acute electricity shortage, which is continuously soaring and has crossed 6000 Mega Watt MW level, with the rise of mercury. People are forced to stay without electricity for more than 12-14 hours in cities and around 16 hours in rural areas.
The country had suffered from worst power crisis last year which provoked violent protests across the country. The situation has not been improved yet and the protests on the same scale, witness last year, have started in the parts of country. The deepening power crisis has forced many business to close down. Resulting the ten of thousand people have been rendered jobless and the number is feared to increase following the worsening crisis.
The concern department which are supposed to supply electricity uninterrupted associate power crisis with reduced oil and gas supply, financial constraints and shortage of water in two major dams.
Experts say that the power situation could worsen in coming days as weather gets hotter. In the peak season the demand for electricity surges above 17,000 MW as people switch on Air conditioners to escape from the impacts of rising temperature.
Despite the fact that the country is facing huge power crisis for last 11 years, the incumbent governments did not do any thing to thwart the impending crisis. The demand started generating in Musharraf’s 8 years rule which peaked in the current years. The country during these period did nothing to generate electricity from other resources.
Vested interests including powerful petroleum lobby are big hurdle in the development of power sector in Pakistan. Though, there were talks of exploiting alternative sources for power generation but practically the result still remains a big zero.
Pakistan's energy mix is highly dependent on oil and gas. The country spends around $10-12 billion a year on the import of crude oil and deficit petroleum products.
Pakistan’s energy crisis has its roots in number of issues including lack of Integrated Energy Planning & Demand Forecasting and absence of central & focused entity responsible for the Energy Sector, Imbalanced Energy Mix with heavy reliance on gas and Oil and costly imports. Non-utilization of vast indigenous resources of Thar Coal and Hydel potential, Lack of effective project structuring, planning and implementation of identified and viable projects are major source of power crisis.
Pakistan current heavily depends on natural gas, around 47 percent, to generate electricity following by oil, 31 percent, Hydro electricity, 11 percent and coal 10 percent. The power generation through nuclear means is only 1.2 percent. However, the country plans to increased energy mix by 2030. According to the 2030 energy plan power energy mix would be as follows, the gas dependence to be reduced to 35 percent, coal share to be increased to 30 percent, hydro power generation to be jacked up to 20 percent while dependence on oil will be reduced to only 10 percent. The share of nuclear and alternative resources would be up by 3 percent and 2 percent respectively by 2030 in the power generation.
Pakistan is bestowed with huge natural coal reserves labeled as “black gold”. Worlds Single largest contiguous Coal field extending over 10,000 Square kms. Reserves of 175 – 200 billions tons exceed oil equivalent reserves of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, with a value of several trillion dollar. Phased development can lead to 400 – 600 mt /year coal mining in 20 years. All of Pakistan’s energy requirements such as electric, power, gas and diesel can be met in 2020 – 2030 scenario.
If government even now takes serious steps to reduce dependence on the costly imports of oil by utilizing coal reserves the power crisis could be eliminated within next couple of years and will ensure the nation’s energy and economic future.
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