Can energy crisis be coped with?

Tuesday, May 21, 2013 - AS mercury is soaring with reports that scores of people have lost their lives in different parts of the country, the curse of load-shedding has also increased to unprecedented level indicating the enormous challenge ahead for the new Government and the need to address it as number one priority. Industrial and commercial activities have almost come to a halt due to 20 hour power outages besides untold sufferings of each and every citizen. In this backdrop, a report appearing in this newspaper revealed that the PML-N Government would take steps to resolve the problem on short, medium and long term basis. The circular debt is at the heart of the crisis and the plan of the next Government to address it squarely would be the right approach despite the fact that the debt is more than what the country spends on development in one year. But there is no way to get rid of the rising gap between demand and supply of the electricity than to clear the circular debt to allow power plants to operate and operate on full capacity. There is no point in adding to the installed capacity when we are unable to tap the existing one due to our failure to provide fuel to power plants. Similarly, an operation against power theft is over due as electricity worth billions of rupees is stolen by Kunda mafia in Karachi and Hyderabad besides meterless connections in FATA and some other areas of KPK. There are also reports of meterless provision of gas to unspecified number of homes in KPK especially from Gurgari field. System losses is another area where we can save hundreds of megawatts if phase-wise upgradation and modernisation programme is implemented to replace outdated transformers and distribution lines. Energy conservation is yet another area which can produce immediate results but unfortunately we have been paying only lip-service to the idea as the PPP Government throughout its tenure gave consumers the lollipop of distribution of energy savers but no one knows where they ended up. There is also no justification to ensure uninterrupted supply of power to elite and privileged class when overwhelming majority of the population is forced to live in darkness and sweat in scorching heat. We should also work on war footing to attract foreign investment in solar, wind and other alternative sources of energy besides, of course, expediting construction of water reservoirs. Energy crisis can definitely be addressed if there is will to do so.