Energy crisis in Pakistan

In this world of urbanization and industrialization, energy has taken the prime most position without which no nation can think of making any progress. pakistan as a developing country is mired in acute energy crisis, which is predicament for its feable economy and volatile national security environment . the countrys energy problems are deep and complex, being rooted more in shortages of governance nad political governance and political wills than of pure supply. This stems from the absence of comprehensive and integrated energy policy, insufficient revenue to support energy generation and infrastructure, owing to low liquidity in pakistans struggling economy and high rates of tax default and leaderships unwillingness to implement politically unpopular changes to address the situation. As a result there has been enormous increase In Pakistan as compared to increase in energy production. an energy crisis can be defined as any bottleneck (or price rise)in the supply of energy resource to an economy. Pakistans energy infrastructure is not well developed, rather it is consider to be undeveloped and poorly managed. Rapid demand growth , transmission losses due to out dated infrastructure , powertheft and seasonal reduction in availibiltiy of hydropower have worsened the situation. Consequently the demand exeeds supply and load shedding is a common phenomenon in all cities. Energy crisis started in Pakistan in 2007 and in 2008 .it took a serious turn in 2009 -2010 energy is supply and capita availibilty of energy witnessed a decline of 0.64 % and 3.09% respectively in comparison to the previous years and in june 2012 electricity shortage was 8500 MW round about 40% of countrys total requirement. On of the most critical defecencies troubling the energy sector is money. With pakistans economy struggling , liquidity is dangerously low .in effect energy consumers , private producers , the national transmission agency distribution companies , and even the govt itself cannot pay their bills. According to pakistans water and power ministry. Influential defaults owe (to pay)about $1 billion in overdue (past the due date of payment)energy bills as a result , the energy sector deprived of despretely needed revenue to pay for generation transmission , distribution , as well as operative and administrative costs. This gap b/n revenue & expenses is often reffered to to as circular debt which has risen to 500 billion. Paks energy consuming is met by mix of gas , oil electricity coal and LPG sources with different levels os shares. Share of gas is 43.7 percent , oil 29.0 percent electricity 15.3 percent caol 10.4 percent &LGP 1.5 %.energy mix in pak is quite imbalance in comparision to other countries with greater reliance on non renewable resources of their consumption levels are so high that these domestic resources are being rapidly depleted. Paks national oil &gas company, oil & gas development company limited predict that indigenous oil reserves be exhausted by 2025 and that pak will run out of domestic sources of natural gas by 2030.mean while hydroelectricity supply is imperial by climate change with less rainfall redusing river flow.

Hydro power is generated by using electricity generators to extract energy from moving water pak is havingrich resources in hydel power , how ever only 34 %of total electricity generation is coming from this power . currently we are having 655.5 MW against the potentialof 41000 & 45000 MW current hydropower stations are: Tarbela dam:3,478MW Ghazi baratha :1450 Mangla 1000MW Warsak : 240MW Chashma :184 MW Potential hydropower stations are: Diamer basha dam 4500 mw Bunli dam 5400 kalabagh dam 2400 mw Dasu dam 3800mw& Munda dam swat river in mohmand agency 740mw. Keep in view this energy crisis and the deplation of indigenous natural resourece pak need to shift to alternative sources of energy.encourgingly , pak iis starting to explore alternative energy sources. Official have said several small scale wind project are under custruction.the govt has also announced by 2030 it plans to have 5.0 % of total commercial energy spply provided by wind,solar and biowaste ,and that 2.5% of over all paks energy will come from renewable.islamabad claims that by 2030 about 5500 mege watts of paks projected 160000MW daily energy requirement will come from alternative and renewable sources. Pakistan is having one of the largest coal fields in thar, having reserves of more than 200 billion tons,which exceeds equivalent oil reserves of Saudi Arabia and iran. in addition to power generation this coal can be used for chemical and fertilizer production. but they are lying dormant (inactive)since there discovery more than 20 years ago.thar has been the common theme on the compaign trail for this year elections.but both govt and opposition parties have failed to articulate that how pak will overcome formidable chellenge of developing the technological and labour capacity to exploit this potential wealth.another problem is purely political over how to share out up the spoils(profit),between federal govt and provincial govt of sindh.this is a posisitive sign,afterall that our renowned scintist,Dr.samar Muhammad,has been working on the project to produce electricity from coal. Wind power isn another alternative,which harnesses power of wind to propel the blades of wind turbines.this turbines cause the rotation of magnets,which create electricity.though pak has potentials of wind energy ranging from 10000MW to 50000MW,yet power generation through it is at the initial stages and currently 6MW has been installed at thimpir through Turkish company and 50MW will be installed shortly more wind power plants will be built in jhimpir,gharo,keti Bandar and bin qasim Karachi. Solar power involves using solar cells to convert sunlight into electricity . Pakistan has potential upto 100000 MW from solar energy. Building of solar power plants is underway in azad Kashmir, Punjab, sindh and balochistan. However , private vendors are importing solar panels for consumption in the market. Alternative energy development board (AEDB) is working for 20,000 solar water heaters in

gilgit-baltistan . Punjab provincial govt has announced in 2013-14 budget to provide solar tube wells to farmers and solar lights to students , which is good step towards shift in energy paradigm. Biomass production involves using garbage or other renewable resources such as sugarcane , corn or other vegetation to generate electricity . when garbage decomposes, methane is produced and captured in pipes and later burned to produce electricity . brazil has the largest renewable energy programmes from biomass/biodiesel in the world ,followed by the US . AEDB of Pakistan has planned to generate 10 MW of electricity from municipal waste in Karachi followed by similar projects in 20 other cities. Nuclear power stations use nuclear fisiion reaction to generate energy by the reaction of uranium inside a nuclear reactor . Pakistan has small nuclear power programme ,425 MW capacity ,but there are plans to increase this capacity substantially. Since Pakistan is outside the nuclear non proliferation treaty(NPT) it is excluded from trade in nuclear plant or material hinders its development of civil nuclear energy . remaining issue in the development of civil nuclear energy are enrichment of uranium from U235 to U238, controlling chain reaction and clumping of solid waste . Using these alternative sources of energy a rational energy mix planning ought to be developed giving greater dependency to renewable (hydel power),indigenous (caol) and alternative energy resources (wind,solar,biomass and neucler). One of the main causes of energy crises in pak is that pak has never developed a comprehensive and integrated energy strategy.pak announced a national plan in 2010,though it was dominatedby much mocked (chirhana) and lively ignored conservation measures, such as all night marriage parties and neon bill boards along with the required early closure of street,markets.pak has established nationl electronic power regulatory authority charged with ensuring fair energy competition and consumer protection ,but political interfarance undermines its autonomy and effectiveness. Paks other notable shift that could worsen the energy crises is the devoltion of governance from federal to provincial and local levels to 18th constitutional amendment in 2010.this means that many energy related functions and duties are being forced upon provincial and district govts,which suffers from even more capacity constraints ,inefficiencies and financial troubles. Time is running out ,however pak faces rapidly dwindling foreign reserves and plunging (move downward)currency that fell to a recored low ,and double digit inflation is projected this year. There the very real fear that pak soon find itself innable to afford to address its energy crises .presently energy crisis is overwhelming pak by socio-economic problem including decline in economy , agriculture &industry , and causing problems of unemployment poverty. Energy crisis is also causing social issue relating to the domestic usage of energy (cooking heating &water provision ) . load shadding cause unrest & frustration amongst the people . in short energy crisis has more or less plagued all sectors of paks machinery ranging from economy to industry agriculture to social life inflation to poverity and it is hampering natural progress in a drastic manner . none the less meanace of energy crisis can be overwhelmed by govt through making effective policies &its proactive implementation . simultaneously it is the responsibility of us the people of pak to utilize the available energy &wisely to play our due role for the progress the country.

To overcome the meance of energy crises pak must bring some urgently neede order and effieciency to its chaotic and dysfunction energy sector . a better coordinated and integrated energy sector can be attained through consolidation of the countrys many energy related institution into a single ministry. A tighter institutional setup can allow better coordination of planning , decision making an d above all implementation . after a new institutional arrangement pak could move on policy reforms. This should include new pricing measures that remove not all but many energy subsidies. Tax reform is another imperirtive to provide more revenue not just to address the energy crisi but also to assist poor pakis hammered by phase out of subsidies Improvements on the energy demand side are also needed, such as by aiming to reduce by half the 30 % losses arising from distribution and transmission. Both federal and provincial authorities should be more vigilant about keeping up with necessary maintainance and repair at all generation , distribution and transmission facilities in order to minimize leakage and other losses . Finnaly pak should better diversify its energy mix .this can be done initially by importing clear coal which is often cheaper than imported oil and gas with fine , if the political quarrels over thars worked out then national can ideally begin to focus on indigenous supplies. Pak is already divefrsifying by working on separate gas pipe line from iran to pak and among turkamanistan , Afghanistan ,Pakistan and india .however a variety of factors suggest that these projects are far from consummated. In the mean time should take advantage o fits enhancd commercial relations ship with india to import energy from that country. hypothetically pak india trade could be expanded to feature more region wide energy commerce , with such organization such as SAARC providing an instrumental platform. Ultimately , there is just one obstacle and there is of implementation of these measures ansd policies . to combat energy policy , revenue generation to avoid circular debt , political will and implementation is much needed. This will take the nation out of darkness. And will put it on the track of progress and prosperity.