The flicker of the bulb annoys me to a suicidal brink nearly everyday when I experience the voltage fluctuations once the electricity has decided to ‘return’. It has become an everyday routine for this sixth most populous country’s nation to pray and pray for electricity to stay. As fate would have it in the jaws of poetic justice; Pakistan even though establishing itself as a nuclear power country hasn’t been able to cope much with the angry rebellion of the masses towards ‘load-shedding’. The love story of demand and supply is lost somewhere between the battle of KESC and WAPDA and tragic end of it is assured by the political instability. The blame game of this issue doesn’t seem to end; the new leaders blame the previous leaders, the previous leader blames the system and system blames the power theft.
A labor complains he doesn’t have electricity to run his shop. If he doesn’t earn daily who will keep food on his kids’ table? The factory owners are annoyed because their work is on hold since the heavy machineries can’t run without electricity and when break-even of the profit doesn’t meet, workers are out of their jobs. Hospitals and doctors are skirting around on the issue of timings of operation. Students in examinations are sweating to their elbows. Educational Institutions are also on their knees to power up their classrooms. Everybody demands his share of power since he claims or is paying for it. The ‘aam admi’ is battling against the ever rising utility bills. Over all system in short of electricity is a system fractured and due to this the economy is taking a downward spiral.
According to Saqib Idrees Taj Pakistan current power demand is more than 22000 MW and it is rising 8% annually, Pakistan has total installed power generation capacity of 20,456 MW. However, dependable or de-rated capacity is in the range of 14,000 to 16,000 MW[1] . Vaguely speaking it means we are 31% short. This shortage has to led to the passive annoyance of load shedding, riots, public demonstrations, executives being fired and hurling accusations on talk shows, hospitals and industries being greatly hampered and overall bringing the quality of life drastically down.
According to the ever popular Wiki we are the 7th nuclear power state with 2.4% of electricity being produced by nuclear energy. Of 19,505 MW electricity produced in Pakistan 462 MW is nuclear. This amounts to 2% of the production by two active reactors. The third reactor Chashma-2 however is caught up in the issue of global security as we ‘threaten’ the other countries since Pakistan isn’t a member of Non-Proliferation treaty still the reactor is expected to kick start in 2011. Although if the future depends on nuclear energy solely it might not be that promising since West tactfully holds the exchange of material and technical assistance Pakistan needs away from us until we don’t sign the treaty. Pakistan for long has been dependant on hydro-power but construction for new dams is muddled in conspiracy theories. The questions to pose here however are why when we were able to turn Project-706 fruitful can we not solve the energy crisis? Can we not utilize alternative resources to meet up the cent percent mark? Don’t we have the resources one needs to get out of this crisis? Can’t we balance this equation of supply and demand?
The answers to above questions are we do and we can. Pakistan’s good fortune lays in black diamond we call coal. Blessed as we are, Pakistan approximately has 184,123 million tones only in Sindh itself [2]. The deposits of coal at Thar is said to produce 100,000MW for 300years straight [3]. Pakistan’s coal by its nature has a damp-moisture quality to it which is needed by the new technology to convert coal to electricity. It’s the cheapest answer to our problems. Fortunately Dr. Mubarakmand has decided to tap into this potential solution.
Who can ignore the sun in the country like Pakistan? Where ten out of twelve months the sun is shining down on us with vengeance. Then why not use it for our own good? The photovoltaic solar panels can be the other answer to our prayers. Yes although this project is expensive but it’s a one-time investment it is bound to return fruits in the long years. Due to fiscal constraints importing the solar panels would be tough. Instead Pakistan could manufacture these by itself since silica, quartz and plenty manpower is available here.
Pakistan coastal line runs 2,599km [4]. Of which the 170km of creek system Indus Delta which can produce 1100KW Power [5]. Government should set up necessary turbines for this energy conservation and the bio-gas is also one of the advisable solutions since it can work on very low bases of getting electricity out of animal manure, wood chops and agricultural waste. This could possibly work to light up small villages.
The problem compared to the solutions we have isn’t outrageous as it is depicted to be. But it will become more outrageous if nothing is done soon. The government needs to understand the importance of our resources and use them economically to satisfy the masses. We say ‘God bless the sacred land’ and we don’t realize how blessed we already are. Un-tapped potential of Pakistan can alter its whole image once looked into. The bigger picture though blurry can be seen if and only if we get ourselves on track now by excavating the resources.
Things only will be better if we wake up and harness the change for we are the only hope for the future – together.
(Word Count: 950 words)
REFERENCES:
1.http://www.insaf.pk/Media/InsafBlog/tabid/168/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/3963 /How-to-cope-with-energy-crisis-by-Saqib-Idrees-Taj.aspx
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan_Coal_Mines_and_Resources
3. http://www.opfblog.com/2372/coal-power-generation-in-pakistan/
4. http://earthtrends.wri.org/pdf_library/cp/coa_cou_586.pdf
5. http://www.slideshare.net/ieeepkhi/tidal-energy-by-majida-islam-presentation
naicee... . :p
ReplyDelete