ABSTRACT
Electricity Crisis in Pakistan is one of the severe challenges the country is facing today.
Electricity is essential part of our daily life and its outage has severely affected the
economy and overall living of ours. Thousands have lost their jobs, businesses; our daily
life has become miserable. Pakistan is currently facing upto 18 hours of electricity outage a
day, is expected to face more if not dealt with in time.
The purpose of this study is to analyze the nature of this crisis and to propose some
short-term as well as long-term solutions to this problem.
This study is exploratory in nature. We have done our best to conclude and sketch up some
recommendations in the light of identified hurdles in the way of implementing the
appropriate solution to our problem.
Our study finds some major wholes in our system if they are covered up we can not only
overcome the deficiency of electricity in our systems but also we can be able to export it to
our neighboring countries.
The basic flaws that our study identified are related to circular debt, and the inadequate
capacity of our electricity production and distribution systems. Also we emphasized on
some prospective alternatives to our electricity production that are cheaper and they
provide more clean electric energy as compared to fossil fuel run energy plants.
INTRODUCTION
* Background of the study:
Pakistan has been facing an unprecedented energy crisis since the last few years. The
problem becomes more severe during summers. However, this winter was no different.
During the peak crisis there was a power outage of 3-4 hours everyday. Those without
generators and UPS faced tremendous problems. The prices of both continued to increase
due to a sharp increase in their demand.
Almost two years ago the then WAPDA chairman who happens to be a caretaker minister
admitted that WAPDA cannot meet the current demand for electricity. Its surprising that
such a senior and experienced person took so long to find this out. On top of that the
government which talked about Pakistans supposedly booming economy failed to
understand the gravity of the situation. General Musharraf (R) after becoming Chief
Executive used to talk about building dams especially Kalabagh Dam. This was one of the
many promises he failed to keep. Even after that very few power plants have been set up to
meet the demand for electricity.
During the second government of Benazir some independent power plants were set up.
Had they not been setup then we would have had a much bigger crisis with life almost
coming to a standstill. I come from the software industry which has been badly hit by the
present power crisis. On an average the generator at my office is on for three hours. Our
work is not much affected but overall the companys operating expenses have increased.
The policy makers of Pakistan have so far failed to understand one thing. They do talk
about making dams and setting up nuclear power plants but why do they not understand
the importance and benefits of alternate energy sources such as solar, windmill energy etc.
They are cheap and quick methods for producing electricity. Pakistan is a very blessed
country because solar energy is available in most cities all year round similarly wind
energy is readily available in the coastal areas. These energy sources if tapped can be of
great help in reducing the current demand supply gap.
Pakistan is facing power shortage, naturalcrisis and oil crisis. In a report it is claimed that
Pakistan has faced 1000 to 2000 MW shortage of power. And it will likely face 3000MW
next year. Pakistan is facing 80 millions tons of oil shortage according to its need. And is
lacking behind the needs of natural gas at about 27 million ton of energy in current year
and this ratio will rise in upcoming years.
Energy Crisis In Pakistan
An energy crisis is any great shortfall (or price rise) in the supply of energy resources to an
economy. It usually refers to the shortage of oil and additionally to electricity or other
natural resources.
The crisis often has effects on the rest of the economy, with many recessions being caused
by an energy crisis in some form. In particular, the production costs of electricity rise,
which raises manufacturing costs.
For the consumer, the price of gasoline (petrol) and diesel for cars and other vehicles rises,
leading to reduced consumer confidence and spending, higher transportation costs and
general price rising. Energy resources have depleted! Whatever resources are available are
simply too expensive to buy or already acquired by countries which had planned and acted
long time ago. Delayed efforts in the exploration sector have not been able to find
sufficient amounts of energy resources. Nations of the world which have their own
reserves are not supplying energy resources anymore; only the old contracts made decades
ago are active. Airplanes, trains, cars, motorbikes, buses and trucks, all modes of
transportation are coming to a stand still. Many industries have closed due to insufficient
power supply. Price of oil has gone above the ceiling. At domestic level, alternate methods
like solar, biogas and other methods are being tried for mere survival.
The above is a likely scenario of Pakistan and around the globe after 25 years. A
pessimistic view, but realistic enough to think about and plan for the future. But are we
doing anything about it? Lets have a look at the current energy situation of Pakistan and
the world.
Pakistans economy is performing at a very high note with GDP growing at an exceptional
