Electricity problems in

Pakistan
Introduction:
In modern age electricity has become utmost need for survival of
life in this world. Each sector of alive is useless without it. It plays a
vital role in growth of economy and progress of any country.
Electricity produced in Pakistan is from three main sources.
1). Hydral
2). Thermal (Gas/Steam/Furnace Oil)
3). Nuclear
There are four major power producers in country:

WAPDA (Water & Power Development Authority)

KESC (Karachi Electric Supply Company),
PAEC (Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission).
IPPs (Independent Power Producers)
There are around 20 independent power producers that contribute
significantly in electricity generation in Pakistan.
According to 2014 calculations in Pakistan total installed electricity
capacity is 22,797 MW. And the sources are as following,

fossil fuel 14,635 MW 64.2% of total(oil-35.2% + gas-29%)

hydro 6,611 MW 29% of total
 nuclear 1,322 MW 5.8% of total

The average demand of Pakistan is 17000 MW which is increasing

day by day. So the shortfall-between 4,000 MW and 5,000 MW.
Many things here in Pakistan Change with time but one thing
which is stuck as worst issue to be addressed, is load shedding for
Pakistani people. For years, the matter of balancing Pakistans supply
against the demand for electricity has remained a largely unresolved
matter. Pakistan faces a significant challenge in restoring its network
responsible for the supply of electricity.
Electricity is in short supply in Pakistan, and as a result electric
load shedding, breakdown, power outages, fluctuations, blackouts, etc.
are a common feature in the country. Whether it is summer or winter,
load shedding is there.
Major portion of electricity is produced from oil, gas and coal
which are called thermal power. It is very expensive to generate
electricity that is not bearable for poor public. Due to this fact every
government go to deficit financing.
Developed countries are producing their major part form come into
use the atomic resources but Pakistan is not utilizing these resources to
meet our need. Mor0ever, world power pressuring us dons to use of such
power project. Secondly, it requires a lot of care. Perhaps these
measurements will not be taken in Pakistan.
Setting up of new factories and mechanization of agriculture
demand of power is increasing, but the supply of electricity is falling
short of demand at an increasing rate every year.
 Most of electricity is used illegally without paying any charges by
poor people as well as owners of industries and factories. Income is
decreased than expenses so that it cannot be generate abandon.
In Pakistan every person wants to know that what are the reasons
which are causing shortage of electricity and looking towards the
governments so that they may take pity on them and solve these
problems.

Problems and effects:

The time table of Load shedding has been set by the administration
of electricity to cover the shot fall of power. In big cities the duration of
Load shedding is 7 to 8 hours where as in small villages it is 15 to 16
hours. Here the question arises why we are facing Load shedding; even
we are paying huge bills with extra amount of taxes. Why
the government imposes Load shedding on us. So we discuss different
problems and their effects upon the Pakistan economically, socially and
morally.
One of the most important problems faced by people of Pakistan is
outage of electricity. It causes disruption in all spheres of life. Every
now and then we see politician making false promises to general public
that the problem of load shedding will soon be overcome. However,
within last 5 years no improvement has been witnessed. On the contrary,
the problem is getting worse with every passing day. The following
article will have a look at the problems created by load shedding and
will recommend few solution to overcome it.
Students are one of the many groups that are affected by the
problem of load shedding. Their studying schedule is greatly disturbed
due to the excessive hours of load shedding. The problem becomes
worse during the months of summers and that is the time when many
students appear for their final exams. They cannot concentrate on their
studies at school due to intense heat and not a single fan working in a
room filled with students. Similarly, the problem continues at home as
well due to which they are unable to finish their home assignments on
time or prepare for upcoming quizzes and exams.
The industrial sector of Pakistan has also suffered a lot due to the
intensive electricity load shedding. All large industries are capital
intensive and rely on heavy machinery for the production activity which
is run by electricity. Due to breakages in electricity, the production has
reduced many folds, workers sit redundant during the hours of load
shedding, and installing of generators has increased the cost of
production and reduced the competitiveness of Pakistan made products
in international market.
The patients also suffer terribly because operation stops in
hospitals for load shedding. Load shedding at night also encourages the
thieves. However, this problem should be solved at any cost. The
concerned authority must take necessary steps to stop it.

However, the question that arises is what needs to be done in order

to overcome the menace of load shedding. Pakistan just rely on water for
the generation of electricity whereas it can be produced using other
resources as well such as wind, gas, coal etc. the largest province of
Pakistan, Baluchistan, has large untapped reserves of natural gas and
coal which can be used to produce additional electricity in the country
and overcome the problem of load shedding. MOST of us believe that
load shedding at present is the result of the government's
mismanagement, though in reality this is not so. All stakeholders,
including consumers, employees and the government, are equally
involved and responsible.
 As consumers we also need to play our part in reducing the
problem of load shedding. We should try to minimize the use of air
conditioners, instead of using all ACs of a home, all family members can
sit in one room and just use a single AC.
In addition, we need to adapt the habit of turning off lights and
fans whenever coming out of our room in order to save electricity. Such
small measures can make a huge difference. Instead of wasting
electricity, we should use it wisely. It will not only save our money on
electricity bills but would improve the problem of load shedding.
In Pakistan there is no water in dams so Pakistan is not producing
desired amount of electricity from water. It is the main cause due to
which Pakistan is facing shortage of electricity.
Moreover, the equipment used for the generation of electricity are
very old, so they cannot operate at their ideal level.
The problem of load shedding is acute and has created several
difficulties for different groups of people. Government needs to take
different measures to overcome it as soon as possible but at the same
time the users of electricity should also act in a responsible manner to
minimize its wastage.

SOLUTION TO END POWER SHORTAGE

Here I am taking an initiative and I am putting some possible ways

to conserve electricity and some possible ways to generate new.

There are different ways for the generation of electricity in our country
.by adopting these process we can lead to overcome the shortage of
electricity in Pakistan.
 SOLAR ENERGY
Solar energy is the energy derived from the Sun in a form of ultra violet
rays. Pakistan has a great gift of God Sunlight. It should be installed in
hottest areas of Pakistan like Sibbi, Jacobabad etc. It should also be
installed in town level in Karachi where there is much shortage of
electricity. Cottage industry and power looms can be run on this energy.

OCEANS AS A SOURCE OF ENERGY

Ocean energy is one of these promising energy resources. The
renewable energy source of ocean mainly is contained in waves, ocean
current and offshore solar energy. The advantage of using this source is
the availability of forecast for waves, which can help in designing the
right elements. Moreover, improved computational techniques for
modelling and simulation have made the studies of wave climatology
and ocean energy converters more promising in future. A considerable
research and execution of various projects has already been undertaken
globally in this field. Many countries which include UK, Scotland,
Ireland, USA, China, Portugal and India have launched various Wave
Energy Conversion (WEC) models/projects and rapidly progressing
towards cost effective solutions.
In Pakistan, with a 170 km available creek system of Indus delta, ocean
wave energy harnessing can play a vital role in eradicating the energy
crisis. However, very fewer efforts have been made to harness this
reliable and predictable resource in Pakistan.

HYDEL POWER
A hydropower source of energy is well known in Pakistan and there is
ever growing experience in this sector to develop the hydropower
potential indigenously in the country. The total Hydropower resources is
estimated at about 50,000 MW. Most of the resources lie in the North of
the country, which offers sites for large scale (100 MW to 7,000 MW)
power projects. Smaller (less than 50 MW) sites are available throughout
the country. In addition, canal system with total of 58,450 km
watercourses, farm channels and field ditchers running another 160,000
km in length has a huge hydropower potential at numerous
sites/locations on each site, ranging from 1 MW to more than 10 MW
hydel plants can be installed.

Water flowing in rivers has kinetic energy which is used to drive the
turbin and produce electricity.Although we cannot build big dams but
we should construct the small dams for industrial sector.It is necessary
because of Indus basin treaty Violence by India.

NUCLEAR ENERGY
Nuclear energy is produced by emission of radiations from nucleus of an
atom. Nuclear energy is considered by many to be a cleaner method than
traditional methods for the production of electricity. While traditional
electrical plants are powered by steam that's produced by the burning of
fossil fuels, nuclear power plants produce steam very differently.
Uranium atoms are split in a process known as fission. The heat
generated from this process is converted into steam and used to power
the turbines, which produce electricity.
In some regards, since nothing is burned or released into the
environment during the production of fission, nuclear energy can be
considered a more environmentally-friendly energy source than the
systems that burn fossil fuels. No greenhouse gasses are produced, so it
does not contribute to what many consider to be global warming. In
addition, the reactor is not subject to fluctuations due to the weather the
way that wind turbines or solar power would be. Nuclear reactors can
give off radiation from leaks in improperly contained systems and
through transportation of raw materials, such as uranium as well as the
storing of radioactive waste products.

COAL ENERGY
Coal is a best way to produce energy. A sustainable solution to the
lingering energy crises in the resource-constrained Pakistan is rested in
the use of a cheaper source of power generation like coal, experts
believe. Energy-hungry countries world over have been burning coal to
produce thousands of megawatts (MW) of cheap electricity, the
successive cash-strapped governments in Pakistan have largely been
oblivious to the highly economical usage of the "black gold", a
nomenclature commonly used for coal in the concerned quarters.

Consequently, the socio-economic life in the otherwise developing

country is still haunted by a severe energy crisis with electricity shortage
in 2014 exceeding the 7,000MW mark. Experts lament the fact that
Pakistan, despite possessing huge but still untapped reserves of 175
billion tons of lignite in Tharparkar district of Sindh, is heavily relying
on the most expensive fuels: furnace oil and gas.

RECOMMENDATIONS TO OVERCONE THE

SHORTAGE OF ELECTRICITY
To overcome energy crisis, Pakistan needs to take following
stepin form of:

SHORT TERM PLANNING

1. Public should be awarded about the importance of electricity

through advertisement and increase the education system
from this action awareness will be enhanced at public level.
 2. Public should be awarded about the importance of electricity
through advertisement and increase the education system
from this action awareness will be enhanced at public level.
3. Dis-allow back-lit advertising boards. No shop can use any
back-lit boards at all. When they are allowed to lit one lamp
outside, that lamp should be placed at a place that will lit
their sign-board and give illuminate to the shop entrance.
4. Abandon use of ACs in all the Government Offices, on
exceptions whatsoever.
5. All the housing societies can use only 1 light out of 3 they
have installed. No exceptions other than the main-enterer
where they can use few more.
6. New connection of electricity should be band until to fulfill
the current requirement.
7. Abandon use of mercury lights everywhere in the country.
All the streetlights that use them must be replaced with
energy-saving lights and put all the expanse of doing so upon
residents of the City who live there. A small city will have
fewer street-lights and thus cost of replacing them will be
equally low while large cities like Karachi that have huge
number of replaceable lights, being in large number, they can
bear the cost.

MEDIUM TERM PLANNING

1. Electricity should be import on ad hoc basis.

2. The Govt. should reactivate the closed power generating
units.
3. The Govt. should overhaul the existing poor distribution
system.
 4. Production from solar system and bio gas should be enhanced
at public level as well as individual level. Govt. must
encourage this system by providing the technical expertise
and finance.
5. Every city must be divided into regions in terms of electricity
usage. Areas like Defense Housing Society (Rich of the
country) use this National resource carelessly. Every house
has 2/5 Air Conditions and a single house will consume
electricity that could run 20 fans in 20 homes of the poor.
With that in view, load-shedding should be on the basis of
usage within a certain area. Let me explain how is that
implementable.

LONG TERM PLANNING

1. More Dames should be set up.
2. Developing and installing new coal based power houses.
3. Initiate agreements for mega projects with the energy
extensive countries for sustainable energy resources.
4. Exploration of more oil, gas and coal reservs.
5. Sources of production should be increased to keep in mind
the present and future needs.
6. If Govt. cannot manage it properly so contract should be
made with foreign investor like China.

CONCLUSION
The government of Pakistan should overcome corruption,
inefficiency and dismanagment of WAPDA. They should
build up a stringent framework to purchase cheap electricity
from china. KESC, LESCO and PEPCO. The performance
should be regularly monitored by the government to
eliminate any loo holes in its effective functioning.

Government should also take steps to utilize coal reserves

though it will give us energy for next 25 years.